Director’s Thoughts #17 – Library Card Sign-Up Month

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month and my library hasn’t really done anything specific to celebrate in the past. Usually, in September, my staff is exhausted from Summer Reading and then gearing up for the school year. So this year, I started planning for September in January, that way we wouldn’t have an excuse not to do anything.

Thankfully, I’ve got an amazing relationship with our Public Information Office in our township building and they have been hugely helpful – finding some great articles we’ll be sharing, creating some infographics and some how-to videos for us. So, here’s what we have planned for September:

• Infographics of library statistics
• List of 10 reasons why you should sign up for a library card
• List of 20 things you can do at the library
• Staff profiles with pictures and quotes
• How to videos about using our event calendar, accessing our online resources and a behind-the-scenes video of how a library book gets to the shelf
• Director interview
• 1st library card highlights – some staff have their very first library card and we’ll be taking some pictures and pulling quotes from staff
• Interactive bulletin board for patrons to write what they love about the library
• Displays to promote the library’s history within the library with old pictures, newspaper articles and other memorabilia
• Teacher brochure to promote how the library can partner with them
• Student/Family brochure to share all the great resources we have for students
• Library Card Drives at:
  • All the school open houses (7 schools)
  • Community Center
  • Farmers Market
  • Open house for township staff to check out the library with coffee and doughnuts

Thankfully, we’ve pulled together a lot of this information before September which means next month won’t be as stressful as we first thought! Plus, if we can promote the library to people in the community who aren’t familiar with the library’s services, we’ll hopefully gain some new patrons!