Team up for Library Card Sign-up Month
Contact: Megan McFarlane
Campaign coordinator
Campaign for America’s Libraries
mmcfarlane@ala.org
312-280-2148
NEWS
For Immediate Release
August 18, 2009
CHICAGO –As schools open their doors for another year of classes, librarians remind parents and children that it’s the perfect time to get the most important school supply of all – a library card.
September is Library Card Sign-up Month, and the Campaign for America’s Libraries is looking for stories about how libraries are promoting the initiative. Â
From now until the end of September, libraries are encouraged to submit stories, photos and sample materials to atyourlibrary@ala.org. The Campaign for America’s Libraries is particularly interested in stories of how public and school libraries are working together.
Visit the Association for Library Service to Children’s (ALSC) Kids! @ your library Best Practice
wiki to read about how the Public Library of Charlotte & Mecklenburg County worked with area schools to make sure every student in the community had a library card.Â
Libraries looking for materials to help promote Library Card Sign-up Month locally can download print and audio public service announcements (PSAs) featuring WNBA Star and Library Card Sign-up Month Honorary Chair Candace Parker. ALA will customize the print PSA at no charge with a library’s logo. For information and to download PSAs visit
www.ala.org/librarycardsignup.
Other promotional materials, including a sample press release, letter to the editor, proclamation, PSA scripts and Smartest Card logos and buttons, can also be found at
www.ala.org/librarycardsignup.
Created by the Public Library Association (PLA), a division of the ALA, and the Campaign for America’s Libraries, the Smartest Card campaign was developed in 2004 to promote the library card as the important card in every wallet.
PLA offers Smartest Card merchandise at its Café Press store Library Store…Library Stuff (
www.cafepress.com/librarystore). Smartest Card items include messenger and tote bags, mouse pads, note cards and license plate frames.
Library Card Sign-up Month was launched in 1987. Since then, thousand of public and school libraries join each fall in a national effort to remind parents and children that a library card is the most important school supply of all.
The Campaign for America’s Libraries, (www.ala.org/@yourlibrary) is ALA’s public awareness campaign that promotes the value of libraries and librarians. Thousands of libraries of all types – across the country and around the globe - use the Campaign’s @ your library® brand. The Campaign is made possible by ALA’s
Library Champions, corporations and foundations that advocate the importance of the library in American society.
