The RED Bookshelf is a non-profit community literacy program.  Working with community partners, we provide free children’s books on bright red bookshelves throughout Albany. We repair gently used books and purchase specific titles to support diverse, educational programming and local authors. 

We facilitate interactive, literacy based workshops that inspire young readers to connect with literacy in artistic ways. We do this to ensure that all children have access to the benefits of book ownership, regardless of income level and are inspired to read on their own.

We allow young readers to choose their own books and motivate them to be the superheroes of their own stories.

2020 was a challenging year to continue to provide Albany families access to free books. Though a number of RED Bookshelves were made inaccessible by the worldwide pandemic of COVID-19, we were able to find different ways to get books to children, distributing a total of 36,517 books by the end of 2020.