DeKALB – Encouraging people to read and getting books in the hands of “reluctant readers” – that is the purpose behind the Big Read, according to Edith Craig, community relations director for the DeKalb Public Library.

For the sixth straight year, the library has received a $16,000 matching grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with Arts Midwest. Grants were awarded to 78 libraries nationwide, and the DeKalb library is one of only four to receive it six years in a row.

“We are very proud of that fact,” library director Dee Coover said. “The real problem in America is that people aren’t reading.”