Carlow County Council, with support from Carlow Library Service, Crafty Fox, Myshall and local charity shops has implemented a project to bring new life to old books.
Each year our local Libraries and local Charity shops send thousands of books to local landfills. These are old titles that have long gone out of fashion and are felt to have passed their shelf life.
Remake Reuse and Reimagine with Books encouraged participants (young children and their families) to rethink their actions and offer a new life and purpose to these once loved titles. Participants were taught to reimagine a new purpose for these books and find fun things to do with what once would have been sent to landfill.
Local Craft makers in Carlow have already carried out this project in two of our primary schools and the projects have been very successful. This project will engage other local craftspeople to work with children to crate fun and interesting repurposed items through craft workshops and in particular Book Folding.
Workshops were hosted in all 4 library branches in County Carlow in October 2017, ensuring that all areas of the town and county were covered catered for, and there were 10-15 participants per workshop.
A series of events are coordinated locally as part of the annual National Children’s Book Festival and it is hoped that this initiative can be part of that. The Book Festival is delivered in partnership with the Library Association of Ireland and it is hoped that this project would be included as part of this national initiative, encouraging libraries in other counties to host similar events and prevent their books going to landfill.