The Bakersfield Californian's charitable giving program, TBC Gives, is at the tail-end of its second annual "My First Library" children's book drive.  Hopefully you've seen the print ads in the paper, but here's the skinny:

We're collecting new and gently used children's books, appropriate for those in kindergarten through grade 6, until the end of business this Friday, November 9.  We've partnered with the Bakersfield City School District and the Kern County Superintendent of Schools to make sure all books collected get in the hands of children who don't have books at home.

You can drop off donations at the front desk of The Bakersfield Californian at 1707 Eye Street downtown (or at the HFPC at 3700 Pegasus Drive) through Friday.

Last year, our Interactive Media department (responsible for the B.com interactive features you know and love) spearheaded a TBC Gives drive collecting personal hygiene materials for homeless persons, and several regular bloggers stepped up and helped us out.  I hope that you're similarly inspired now.

Also, to show how much you love the blog community you spend so much time keeping going here, you can mark your donations with a post-it or something with "Interactive Media" on it.  You see, we're in the middle of a little interdepartmental competition here, seeing who can bring in the most books, and I know you'd want to help us out.

BTW, I was reminded that today is my one-year anniversary at TBC as your Community Content Coordinator.  That's right, you've been putting up with me for an entire year now.  Love me or hate me, you should know that I've really enjoyed working with you over the past year, continuing to create a vibrant, dynamic online community here.  I know I can sometimes come off as a killjoy or worse (heh), but I do appreciate the feedback, support and help many of you have lent in our never-ending quest to make this virtual space, and the features it offers, better.  We've got a lot of cool stuff coming down the pike (including that long-promised topic-categorization system--seriously, I mean it!), so stay tuned, and as always, keep those suggestions coming.

And drop some books by while you're at it!