Friend Your Library This Week

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If you love libraries and aren’t part of your local library’s Friends group, it's a good time to consider joining. October 16 marks the start of the sixth annual National Friends of Libraries Week.

Friends of Library groups can be found in nearly every community and on many campuses across the country. 

These groups, made up of volunteers, raise money and increase public awareness about their library.  The money raised by Friends groups support such important library services as summer reading programs for children, author events, special collections, and new technologies.

Some Friends work with their local libraries to get involved in politics, lobbying for advocacy efforts such as increasing the library’s budget, building new facilities, or even legislation that affects libraries.

Sponsored by the Association of Library Trustees, Advocates, Friends and Foundations (ALTAFF), a division of the American Library Association (ALA), the celebration week hopes to raise public awareness of local Friends of Libraries groups, to boost membership, and ultimately, to increase advocacy for libraries.

If your library doesn't have a Friends group, ask your librarian about starting one. The ALTAFF website has information to help get you started.

Paula Poundstone, Emmy Award-winning comedian, lends her name, voice and humor to help Friends groups around the country promote themselves and their libraries.

In her most recent public service announcement for National Friends of Libraries Week Poundstone explains her “unbalanced relationship” with her public library until she joined the Friends to help raise money for her local library.