15 Libraries to Celebrate Its 15th Anniversary in 2025

Media | News

Judith’s Reading Room Concludes 2025 with 9 New Libraries in 28 Countries
Byjrrtestadmin December 20, 2025

December 20, 2025 – Blandon, PA. Judith’s Reading Room announced its #117th eponymous library in its 28th country at the Kirioruwa School in Sri Lanka, an island country in the Indian ocean on the Asian continent with a population of nearly 22 million.

Plans to establish our library were completely disrupted when, in early December, Cyclone Ditwah brought devastating rain and flooding to Sri Lanka and southern India. More than one million people were affected and 220,000 were forced into safety centers.

Read More Judith’s Reading Room Concludes 2025 with 9 New Libraries in 28 Countries
Media | News

Navajo Authors, Illustrators to be Showcased – Chinle, AZ
Byjrrtestadmin November 1, 2025

November 1, 2025 — Blandon, Pa. Judith’s Reading Room announced that its 116th Judith’s Reading Room library will be formally opened on April 9, 2026 in Chinle, Arizona, a community within the Navajo Nation, the largest reservation in America. The announcement is made today to recognize National Native American and Alaska Native Heritage Month which is celebrated each November.

Read More Navajo Authors, Illustrators to be Showcased – Chinle, AZ
Media | News

Literacy Nonprofit Delivers STEM Power
Byjrrtestadmin September 12, 2025September 10, 2025

September 12, 2026 — Judith’s Reading Room, a 501 (c) (3) based in eastern PA, dedicated its newest library containing more than 90 brand-new STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) books to Abundant Life Academy (ALA) in Nutley, New Jersey, filling a vital gap in its library and connecting its students to a global community of young innovators. It became the organization’s 115th Judith’s Reading Room named library.

Read More Literacy Nonprofit Delivers STEM Power
Media | News

Custom Donation Reimagines What Reading Can Be
Byjrrtestadmin July 31, 2025August 1, 2025

July 31, 2025 — In a move that refreshes and reimagines the role of today’s libraries, Judith’s Reading Room has donated a custom-curated collection of graphic novels to the historic James Prendergast Library in Jamestown, NY. The gift, designed to create a ”library-within-a-library” brings new energy, relevance, and excitement to the library’s offerings — particularly for teens, visual learners, and reluctant readers. It is the organization’s 114th library in 27 countries around the world.

Read More Custom Donation Reimagines What Reading Can Be
Media | News

With South Africa, Judith’s Reading Room Expands to 27 Nations
Byjrrtestadmin June 25, 2025July 14, 2025

June 25, 2025 — Judith’s Reading Room, a global nonprofit literacy organization, founded in 2010 in the memory of Judith F. Krug, a distinguished American librarian and cousin to its founders, today inaugurated its 113th library as it expanded geographically to its 27th country — South Africa. Over the course of a decade, Judith’s Reading Room has established libraries in 7 African nations.

Vhulakanjhani Primary School, located in Malubana Village, Nkambako, Limpopo Province, serves approximately 900 students in grades R-7 (ages 5-13). The school is in a rural part of Limpopo that depends largely on farming fruits, vegetables, animals and timber. There is high unemployment and while the school is under-resourced, the teachers and students are dedicated and enthusiastic.

Read More With South Africa, Judith’s Reading Room Expands to 27 Nations
Media | News

Judith’s Reading Room Donates Library to Jane Goodall Institute in Nepal
Byjrrtestadmin June 19, 2025

June 19, 2025 — Hundreds of children in one of the poorest communities in rural Nepal joined Judith’s Reading Room — a global literacy nonprofit based in eastern Pennsylvania — today as it dedicated its 112th library in its 26th country — Nepal.

Mee Wah Tan (recipient of Judith’s Reading Room’s ‘Outstanding Service Award’) — she is on the left. Ms. Shristi Singh Bhandari, Executive Director, Jane Goodall Institute Nepal is on the right.

In collaboration with Jane Goodall Institute Nepal (JGIN), the 112th Judith’s Reading Room library was inaugurated today at Janata Adharbhut Primary School which now boasts its first-ever library with 578 children’s books in English that were purchased locally with $2,000 provided by Judith’s Reading Room. “There are 400 students in grades 4-7 who call this school their center of knowledge, yet the children who hail from one of the poorest communities of the region do not have access to books that go beyond their school curriculum,” according to Shristi Singh Bhandari, Executive Director, JGIN.

Read More Judith’s Reading Room Donates Library to Jane Goodall Institute in Nepal
Media | News

First-ever Tribal Community Library on Navajo Reservation, Chinle, AZ
Byjrrtestadmin June 12, 2025June 14, 2025

June 12, 2025 — Judith’s Reading Room announced today that it will establish a curated library of exceptional literature written or illustrated by Indigenous people — mainly Navajo but also including dozens of enrolled citizens from tribes across the United States. The inauguration of the Judith’s Reading Room library to serve the 128,000 Navajo people will establish its first-ever Tribal Community Library in Chinle, AZ.

Chinle Planting Hope (CPH), a local Arizona nonprofit, was selected as one of 15 libraries to be dedicated as a part of the organization’s “15 Libraries to Celebrate Our 15th Anniversary in 2025.” Judith’s Reading Room has supported CHP since 2020 by donating 500 children’s books for its READ in Beauty Bookmobile.

Read More First-ever Tribal Community Library on Navajo Reservation, Chinle, AZ
Media | News

Literacy Non-Profit Advances its 15th Anniversary Project on 3 Continents in June 2025
Byjrrtestadmin June 3, 2025June 6, 2025

June 3, 2025 — Judith’s Reading Room, the global literacy nonprofit organization based in eastern Pennsylvania, continued its “15 Libraries to Celebrate its 15th Anniversary in 2025” library installations on three continents. A Scottish non-profit and two primary schools in Nepal and South Africa will receive curated book collections hand-picked to inspire a love of reading and to allow a culture of reading to catapult children and adults alike into a lifetime relationship with literature.

Read More Literacy Non-Profit Advances its 15th Anniversary Project on 3 Continents in June 2025
Media | News

Heavy Sound, Cockenzie, Scotland Receives Curated Collection to Enhance its Existing Judith’s Reading Room library
Byjrrtestadmin June 3, 2025June 6, 2025

June 3, 2025 — Judith’s Reading Room, the global literacy nonprofit organization based in eastern Pennsylvania, continued its “15 Libraries to Celebrate its 15th Anniversary in 2025” by today installing its latest collection of books for teens at Heavy Sound, the Scottish nonprofit located near Edinburgh in the village of Cockenzie, Scotland. Heavy Sound, founded by Jordan Butler, works with some of Scotland’s most vulnerable and disconnected teens with poor to no literacy.

Read More Heavy Sound, Cockenzie, Scotland Receives Curated Collection to Enhance its Existing Judith’s Reading Room library
Media | News

First-ever Library in Sri Lanka
Byjrrtestadmin May 6, 2025May 7, 2025

May 6, 2025 — A chance encounter on a flight from New York to San Francisco in 2017 found Cathy Leiber, President, Judith’s Reading Room of Pennsylvania and Professor Tissa Wijeratne, Senior Neurologist and Chair, Migraine Foundation of Australia seated next to each other. Within minutes they discovered that they shared a passion for literacy, coming at it from wildly different perspectives. The five-hour flight was filled with discussions of brain health, literacy, education and the role that reading plays in lifting people out of poverty. Their conversation resulted eight years later in a shared commitment to establish a library in Dr. Tissa’s home country, Sri Lanka. This epitomizes how a Judith’s Reading Room library materializes “out of thin air.”

Read More First-ever Library in Sri Lanka