GREENSBORO, N.C. — It’s been an unusual school year for Southern Elementary School in Greensboro, N.C.
Earlier this school year, every book in its media center was thrown out after a cleaning of the carpet discovered mold.
“It’s just disappointing that maybe thousands of books were going away because of mold,” said Abby Hopper, a fifth-grader at the school.
Replacing an entire library’s books is not easy and not cheap. But the school was able to take advantage of a unique program in the nation’s capital.
In the basement of the historic Library of Congress in Washington is a little-known room that houses the Surplus Books Program.
Much of the collection is made up of extra books the Library of Congress' cataloging office and the copyright office receives from publishers.
Those books, of all different genres, are available to take for free.
The goal of the Surplus Books Program is to build library collections around the country and U.S. territories. Eligible groups can apply to participate in the program through the Library of Congress.
Joe Mahar is the head of the program and has run it for 20 years.
“I think of the small towns around the United States where this is as good as gold, with the resources of libraries and schools being stretched. It’s very easy for an organization to come in and really do well,” he said.
Often, the offices of members of Congress frequent the treasure trove, donating to places around the country.
N.C. Democratic Rep. Kathy Manning heard about the situation at Southern Elementary School and used the program to donate a collection.
“I was so excited to get that email as quickly as i did,” Southern Elementary School Principal Jonathan Moore said.
The donation is by no means enough to fill all the empty shelves at the school, but it’s a step to restoring the imagination of students like Hopper, who said these new books are quite the improvement over the old ones.
“Some of the older books, they had rips, paint, markings. But these new books will be fresh to read and they’ll be amazing, the words will be right, there'll be no drawings, no rips,” Hopper said.