Support Your Local Library

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  1. Use your library! Tell the library director or head librarian what you like about the library – and even what you’d like to see improved. Getting feedback from library users is important for continuous improvement of library service, and it helps the librarian gauge users’ needs.
  2. Ask library staff about volunteering at the library or becoming part of a Friends group. Both academic and public libraries may have a “Friends of the Library” organization. Libraries may need help shelving books, processing discarded items for book sales, or other projects, both large and small. Each type of library may have special needs; just ask.
  3. Ask to be added to your library’s “advocacy list”. Many libraries maintain advocacy lists of volunteers who request that the library provide them with information about library activities and issues and call on them in times of need. This could mean writing a letter to an elected official, attending a meeting with key decision-makers, or calling a decision-maker to express your opinion about library service. You can sign up to be a library supporter right now via our online form.
  4. Support adequate library funding. Libraries may not be emergency services, but they are essential to the quality of our lives and our educational system.
  5. Write a letter to the local paper in praise of libraries and library services and why you value the library.
  6. Tell a friend about the value of the library. Better yet, take a friend to the library!
  7. Help your children learn how to use the library, both school and public. They will perform better in school and develop critical thinking and information literacy skills for success now and later in life.
  8. Volunteer to serve on your local public library board. Local elected officials make these appointments, and usually, the public library director is asked for a list of potential candidates.
  9. Champion the school library before the school board at budget time. Point out the important connection between quality school library media centers and student achievement.

Tell us your ideas for supporting the library or share your library story!

There are 542 students enrolled for every librarian in U.S. 2– and 4-year colleges and universities in 2008, as compared with 4.3 students for each teaching faculty member. 

ALA Office for Research & Statistics, ALA Public Information Office

Wisconsin Library Association Foundation

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