The Essex Library Association is proud to announce the award of a $2,500 grant from the Middlesex County Community Foundation, for the expansion of our collections of language learning materials for adults, young adults, and children. The range of resources to be acquired through this generous funding will include CD-ROM language learning programs, ESL study guides for Spanish and Chinese speakers, bilingual books and workbooks, medical phrase books, and circulating MP3 players for downloading language instruction audio books. The Library has seen a boom in requests for these materials, but budget constraints had prevented their acquisition. We anticipate that this collection will fill a long-term need for patrons from a broad cross-section of the community; from business and pleasure travelers, to the most disadvantaged among us who want to become more self-reliant, productive members of society through improved English-speaking skills. Our thanks go to the Middlesex County Community Foundation, for their continuing support of our goals, our organization, and our community.

The Middlesex County Community Foundation is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to improve the quality of life for the people of the County, now and in the future, by developing endowments, making grants that have impact and assisting donors in meeting their philanthropic objectives. Since its founding in 1997, the Community Foundation has provided over $1.5 million in grants to more than 200 organizations for the arts, cultural and heritage programs, educational activities, environmental improvements and for health and human services.

Items purchased for adults and young adults include:

3 MP3 Players with chargers for downloading  language instruction materials from OverDrive
Basic Grammar In Use With Answers
Basic Grammar In Use With Answers: self study
The Chess Master   Chinese (Mandarin)/English bi-lingual book
Chinese Customs
Complete Russian, The Basics Package
English For New Americans
English No Problem Book 1
English No Problem Book 2
English No Problem Book 3
English No Problem workbook 1
French English Bilingual Visual Dictionary
Italian English Bilingual Visual Dictionary
Living Language Italian Advanced
Living Language Italian Beginner-Intermediate
Living Language Spanish Advanced
Living Language Spanish Beginner-Intermediate
Living Language Ultimate French Advanced
Living Language Ultimate German Advanced
Living Language Ultimate Mandarin Beginner-Intermediate
Mandarin-English Bilingual Visual Dictionary
Oxford Picture Dictionary English-Spanish
Oxford Take Off In Russian
Pass the New Citizenship Test 2009 Edition
Pass The New Citizenship Test Questions And Answers: 100 Civics Questions In Flash Card format Pimsleur English For Chinese Mandarin Speakers
Pimsleur English For Spanish Speakers
Pimsleur Ingles
Pimsleur Mandarin I
Practical English Usage
Pronounce It Perfectly In English
Quick Study-Spanish Flash Cards
Rosetta Stone French I, II, III
Spanish-English English-Spanish Pocket Medical Dictionary
Stories From Mexico   Spanish/English bi-lingual book
Stories From Spain   Spanish/English bi-lingual book