By Benjamin Cox on December 20, 2020 at 9:24am Secretary of State and State Librarian Jesse White has awarded $752,835 in “Back to Books” grants to 187 Illinois libraries for fiction and nonfiction books. White says that libraries need to have access to a diverse collection of books to encourage reading and use of the state’s public and school libraries. Libraries submitted applications specifying the types of books that were needed. The requests ranged in variety from women’s studies, audio books, large-print books, to award winning works of fiction for adults and children. Awards ranged from $465 to $4,900 per library and were made possible by federal Library Services and Technology Act funds from the Institute of Museum and Library Services.