12 Ways to Promote Library Card Sign-Up Month

Since 1988, Library Card Sign-up Month has been held each September. This staple of the library world came into existence in 1987 when the American Library Association (ALA) and the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) decided to make the words of then Secretary of Education, William Bennett, who stated: “Let’s have a campaign … Every child should obtain a library card and use it” come true.

Library Card Sign-Up Month is a concerted effort to make the community aware of the power of having a library card is more than just books. We, as librarians, know that a library card can provide access to programming, computers, books, DVDs, videogames, music, research databases, e-materials and such but rarely do non-library users know of all the benefits of owning a library card.

So how do we educate the public that we are more than books; especially in this time in history when most of our media coverage is about banned books?

12 Different Ways To Promote Library Card Sign Up Month:

1. Drop off library card applications to area schools, retirement homes, and after-school programs.
2. Work with the local news to get a spot to promote library card sign-up.
3. Attempt to break the Guinness World Records for the most people to sign up for a library card in a day.  Current record is 1,922 in Akola, India.
4. Set-up a booth at local farmer’s market or craft fair.
5. Create physical and virtual book displays, celebrating the Love of Words, Books and Libraries with a few of these children’s titles.
6. Partner with local social services or art commissions/councils.
7. Sponsoring an author event to get people in the doors.
8. Create a library savings calculator for your library website to show how much money people save using the library.
9. Host a Comic-Con.
10. Provide an incentive to come to the library with a completed library application; and pick out a paperback book, great suggestions here of children, teen, and adult titles that might be of interest.
11. Social media resources to help you promote National Library Card Sign-Up Month for your library, are available from the American Library Association (ALA).  
12. Since 2006, ALA has had Honorary Chair and Library Card Sign-Up Month spokesperson to promote the program.  Find a local celebrity to promote the library during this month.

Per the Institute of Museum and Library Services, in 2019 there were 17,278 public libraries in the United States with an estimated 2/3 of the adult population having a public library card. That being stated, I alone have lived in 3 states and numerous different library jurisdictions and probably have 10 library cards. So, librarians might skew that number a bit. Regardless, in a country where getting a library card is typically quick and free, how do we get more of the population to see the value of having a library card?

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