Loudoun County Public Schools librarians have collected used books from students and staff to send to A.V. Bukani Elementary School in Addo, South Africa.

After hearing about a campaign to bring back a library to A.V. Bukani, librarians in Loudoun County spread the word among their students and staff and collected more than 1,500 donated books.

Larry and Eileen Kugler launched the library campaign in South Africa after volunteering at the school for two years. Larry, a retired elementary school teacher and administrator in Fairfax schools, and Eileen, the author of a book about the benefits of diversity in schools, first traveled to the country in 2006 on an educational tour of its schools.

Libraries are rare in many developing countries, where literacy rates are low and resources scarce. Many aid organizations and foundations support efforts to ship books overseas.

The books donated by LCPS will become part of a 20,000-title collection loaded onto a 40-foot shipping container this summer bound for the South African city of Port Elizabeth.

From there, the container will be trucked to A.V. Bukani, which is in a rural township 40 miles away.

At Eagle Ridge Middle School, the library and the Student Council Association partnered to promote a book drive to collect used elementary books from students and staff for A.V. Bukani. The SCA students helped to box, label, color code and insert pockets and cards in the 580 books collected.

At the April Loudoun Educational Media Association meeting at Tolbert Elementary, librarians from many schools brought books and school supplies donated by their students, teachers and themselves.

This ended up totaling more than 1,000 titles, including 20 boxes of books from Legacy Elementary.

The Kuglers plan to visit Loudoun in August to provide staff development and support.

For additional information visit the Kugler’s blog at http://www.KuglersinSouthAfrica.blogspot.com.