The idea of the African Library Project was brought to Penn State through a PDS intern, Mike Dissen, who was serving in the Peace Corps in 2009.  Mike reached out to Jim Nolan with the idea of doing a book drive and Jim loved it so much he extended the idea to the PDS interns as well as his freshman seminar.  Many students expressed interest and a few took the lead.  Through the combined efforts of a drive in State College collecting 11,532, and a drive in Roxbury, NJ, collecting 10,221, 19.5 libraries were established in Swaziland and Botswana.  Both drives netted $4,200 each, coming up with enough funds to ship all 19.5 libraries.  In the spring of 2011, another drive was done in Roxbury, NJ, collecting 4,394 books and $800, starting 3 libraries in Swaziland. 

In the fall of 2011, an organization was established and recognized by Penn State and combined the efforts of students on campus, the PDS program, and many other organizations to collect 12,590 books, starting 11 libraries in Swaziland, Ghana, and Botswana.  $4,500 were collected and again it covered all shipping costs like the previous three drives.  In the fall of 2012, the organization was back at it again, fundraising for a goal that had been surpassed by only one other book drive in ALP's history - 15,000 books. 

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Through the efforts to date this school year (2012-2013), there are approximately 12,612 books, with an expected 2,500 more books coming in, to achieve the 15,000 books goal that was set.  The necessary funds won't be achieved, but with a recent donation of $700, the total funds raised push $2,000.  This will cover the shipping to New Orleans (quoted at $1,300) as well as cover two of the 10 total libraries committed to (with an expected 1-2 more to commit to). These libraries will be in Ghana, Malawi, and Sierra Leone.  In total, over 4 years, there have been 5 ongoing book drives. 51,349 children's books were collected starting 43.5 libraries and over $15,000 raised. By our shipping deadline in May 2013, it will likely end with 54,000+ books and 45 libraries.