LibraryCity: E-Books, online communites, and much more

Our LINCT

LibraryCity is a member of the education-oriented LINCT Coalition. Aided by major foundations via the Epie Institute, LINCT has helped low-income families bridge the learning, earning and digital divides.

u.s. department of education photo of children with books LibraryCity will put thousands of e-books and other items online. Interactivity and multimedia will help readers absorb subjects ranging from Shakespeare to nanotechnology. Our rich interwoven tapestry of online communities will embrace learners, teachers, librarians, and readers in general.

Honoring the Carnegie tradition, we intend to reduce the correlation between personal income and access to the best books and other items for self-improvement. Serious reading is in decline, and the National Endowment for the Arts has statistics to show it. LibraryCity is out to help correct that--in partnership with local libraries and schools. It is already starting to draw attention in the world of online education.

Who should reach us

A librarian or educator interested in knowing how we could help your organization.
A prospective volunteer.
A librarian or information technology professional interested in a full- or part-time career with LibraryCity. We love telecommuters, by the way. Please note, however, that we are now entirely volunteer. In the future we expect this to change, but even then we cannot guarantee paid employment to current volunteers.
A nonprofit, a publisher or other organization interested in partnering with us.
A parent concerned about the literacy challenge.
A potential funder.

Who we are

LibraryCity is run by a mix of librarians and tech-oriented people. Rochelle Hartman, a public librarian on our advisory council, sits on the ALA council. Tom Peters, our advisory librarian, is an e-book usability expert as well as former director of the Center for Library Initiatives and also has extensive ties in the public library community. Alev Akman, a board member in waiting, is a veteran cataloger of public domain books and has served as director of the wine library at CSU-Fresno. David Rothman runs TeleRead, a grassroots site advocating well-stocked national digital libraries. Jeff Fobbe, a technical advisor, was TD of the orginal Department of Education ERIC Web site. As noted elsewhere on this page, we are a member of the LINCT Coalition. Its managing partner, the EPIE Institute, is a nonprofit 501(c)3 organization chartered by the Regents of the State University of New York. EPIE has received funding from major foundations.