Library Card Sign-up Month promotes the “Smartest Card”

Contact: Megan Humphrey


Campaign Coordinator


mhumphrey@ala.org
For Immediate Release


June 12, 2006

Library Card Sign-up Month promotes the "Smartest Card"

Free promotional tools now online

Promotional tools in Spanish and English are available online to promote
The Smartest Card. Get It. Use It. @ your library® theme for Library Card Sign-up Month, which begins September 1.

New this year are radio Public Service Announcements (PSAs) featuring actor-comedian George Lopez, as well as a summary of best practices from public libraries nationwide using the "Smartest Card" theme.

The radio PSAs can be downloaded and shared with local media. Libraries also can download a print PSA featuring Lopez that can be customized with local contact information at no cost, courtesy of The Campaign for America’s Libraries. Instructions on how to customize are posted online.

Other tools include "52 Ways to Use Your Library Card," a sample proclamation, press release, op-ed, letter-to-the-editor, PSA scripts and "Smartest Card" artwork. There also are links to "Smartest Card" promotional items available from ALA Graphics.

All materials are available at

www.ala.org/librarycardsignup
.

Libraries are encouraged to let the ALA Public Information Office know how they are celebrating Library Card Sign-up Month. Send an email description with contact information to:

atyourlibrary@ala.org
. The strongest examples will be shared with the press as part of ALA’s national media relations efforts.

Observed the month of September since 1987, Library Card Sign-up Month is a time when ALA and libraries across the country remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all – and this year – the smartest card a student can own.

The Smartest Card. Get It. Use It. @ your library is also the message of the Public Library Association’s national advocacy campaign. For more information on PLA’s "Smartest Card" initiative, visit

www.ala.org/pla
.