University Library awarded for helping to alleviate book famine in Africa
When UW-Stout’s Instructional Resources Service began its partnership with Books for Africa, the university donated small quantities of titles, and BFA Founder Tom Warth collected the boxes of withdrawn textbooks in his SUV.
“But now, over these many years, we are needing semitrucks to collect the books,” he said.
“Our partnership with Stout has been unique in many respects. No other institution of higher learning has done so much.”
Over the last 25 years, UW-Stout has donated more than 500,000 books to BFA.
In recognition of its generosity and commitment to BFA’s mission of ending the book famine in Africa, IRS was recently given the Books for Africa Kilimanjaro Society Volunteer Award.
“It is impossible to measure the impact in Africa,” Warth added. “I like to say 50 young people will benefit from a title over its life span, and if it were not for Stout’s contributions, these are titles that those folks would never see. We all know the ever-increasing cost of college-level material. On behalf of the students of Africa, I thank you, your staff and students.”