National Library Week! Celebrate! Reasons to Love your Library!

Don’t you just love your library? I know I do. Just type “library” in my search box. I love that I can take my kids to not only pick out books to read and take home, but for them to socialize with the other library loving kids. I love that my children get to listen to a story teller, be entertained by a musician, see a magician, create a craft, hear a story, and learn to love books!

Reasons to love your library:

1. Books!
2. Community
3. Story time
4. Special events
5. Movie showings for a night out with the family
6. Book signings
7. Meet the author
8. Literacy programs
9. Free place to play when it’s too cold to go outside
10. Cool place to go when it’s too hot outside
11. Newspapers
12. Magazines
13. Internet service
14. DVD’s to check out
15. Place to read
16. Place to meet friends
17. Place for a meeting (business, nonprofit, community organization)
18. Buy books at rock bottom prices (see what we scored at our last Friends of the Library sale)
19. They put books on hold for you so you don’t have to drag your kids out of the children’s department to find them
20. They bring books from other libraries for you
21. They help you find hard to find resources
22. Museum passes for discount prices, or free!
23. Job & Resume help
24. Downloadable books
25. Friendly people who love the library

Here are some real life stories of people who love their library and how it’s made a difference in their lives.

Go to your local library this week and say thank you to your library workers! Celebrate this week and share what the library helped you create. There are Unlimited Possibilities @ the Library!

And don’t forget, many of our libraries are in trouble and need your support. Sign the Declaration for the Right to Libraries.

What is your favorite reason to love your library?

Shared at the Homeschool Mother’s Journal

Help Save Connecticut Libraries

Connecticut Libraries are in trouble. The proposed budget has cut all funding to the libraries.

Which means:

• No funding to keep many library services and programs running
• Connecticard, the program that allows patrons to borrow materials from any public library in the state, will be eliminated.
• Interlibrary loan will no longer be available
• there will be no basic support for public libraries because state grants will be eliminated
• No group discounts- which saves libraries thousands of dollars each year
• Connecticut Education Network will be eliminated
• technology expenses like internet services are likely to no longer exist
• purchasing new materials will be difficult
• programming available at libraries will discontinue
• funding for staffing will be nonexistent
• library cuts will cost taxpayers
• literacy programs will go away
• some libraries will close their doors as a result of these cuts
• once these statutes (funding the libraries) are eliminated they will be near impossible to restore = no library

How can YOU help?

I realize many of you may not be residents of CT and think “why should I care?” Well, libraries are so much more than just books. And Connecticut is not the only state in trouble (California, New Jersey, Wisconsin are just a few I have found). Check out this interactive map to find out what’s happening with your state’s libraries.

You can facebook, tweet, and talk to people you know

You can write your state representatives and the governor (take a look at this sample letter if you need help composing your letter)

You can sign the Declaration for the Right to Libraries

More reasons to save our libraries:

The role of libraries in communities are shifting. “Academic, public and school libraries are experiencing a shift in how they are perceived by their communities and society. No longer just places for books, libraries of all types are viewed as anchors, centers for academic life and research and cherished spaces.”

The E’s of Libraries help to promote: Education, Employment, Entrepreneurship, Empowerment, and Engagement for Everyone, Everywhere.

What Libraries Do

Some of my personal reasons to save our libraries:

We go to the library at least once a week. We check out books. All. The. Time. We find books of interest and books to help us learn more about a topic from other libraries and rely on the inter-library loan program. We socialize with other kids and moms who are visiting the library.

Our community uses the library as a safe haven, a neutral ground. We have a lot of homeless people who retreat to stay warm in winter and cool in the summer AND they use internet services to aide in finding a job or finding a home. We have a family member who currently is without a home and the library has been a huge resource for him.

Needless to say our libraries facilitate reading and literacy which in turn helps to educate the people in our communities. We NEED libraries!

More Resources:

I Love Libraries

American Library Association

Keeping Public Libraries Public

VTDigger.org

Campaign for America’s Libraries

Let’s keep the conversation going, tell me in the comments why you want your library saved.