"Connect with Your Library" this National Library Week

Mary Beth Harrington, CVA

We love the library for everything that it offers besides books, and for that reason, this column is all about celebrating and appreciating libraries: It is National Library Week!

Connect with Your Library

The theme for National Library Week 2022 is "Connect with Your Library," which promotes the idea that libraries are more than places for books and storytelling. Rather, they are now places to get connected to technology by using broadband, computers and other resources.

Libraries also offer opportunities to connect with media, programs, ideas, classes and books. Most importantly, libraries also connect communities.

According to the American Library Association's (ALA) website, this theme is an explicit call to action—an invitation for communities to join, visit or advocate for their local libraries. Click here for more details on National Library Week.

Each day celebrates one aspect of the library world

• Yesterday, April 4, the State of America's Libraries Report was released, including the Top Ten Frequently Challenged Books of 2021.
• Today, April 5, is "National Library Workers Day," a day for library staff, users, administrators, and friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.
• Tomorrow, April 6, is "National Library Outreach Day" (formerly National Bookmobile Day), a day to celebrate library outreach and the dedicated library professionals who are meeting their patrons where they are as well as "Library Giving Day."
• April 7 is "Take Action for Libraries Day," a day to rally advocates to support libraries.

You can join in the celebration by posting why you love your library on the I Love Libraries Facebook Page or by posting what your library connects you to on social media by using #MyLibrary. Maybe you could win a prize.

Library Giving Day – April 6

Library Giving Day was launched in 2019 by Seattle Public Library Foundation and Carl Bloom Associates to create a nationwide fundraising day and encourage people to donate to their library systems.

Our own Timberland Regional Library (TRL) was one of the first participants. You can support TRL by donating or sharing the hashtag #LibraryGivingDay on social media today and tomorrow. TRL's current focus and a significant part of the organization's strategic plan for the next few years centers on providing library access to underserved communities and bolstering services overall.

"Public libraries like TRL provide access to information in all kinds of formats, in print and online, for all ages," says Cheryl Heywood, Executive Director of the TRL. "Our programs promote lifelong learning, access to the internet, even printing. We offer a solid foundation with early literacy materials and homework help. We strengthen the community as well as the local economy by offering job applications, interviewing skills, and access to business information."

If you haven't been to TRL in the last two years, here are just a few things you may have missed (they have been really, really busy!)

• Opened two new branches – Hawks Prairie in Lacey and West Olympia in Capital Mall.
• Remodeled 15 locations in 2021, with lowered shelving, wider aisles, and new furniture to make them more accessible and user-friendly, with more to come in 2022.
• Updated library hours in 2022.
• Introduced new materials such as Playaway, Launchpads and Vox Books.
• Increased free monthly print balance
• Expanding accessible resources and services such as Kanopy, PressReader and Pronunciator (check trl.org to learn about these wonderful features)

To donate to the Timberland Regional Library, visit https://www.trl.org/donate.

A contribution to Timberland Regional Library is tax-deductible when applied solely for "public purposes" and falls under IRS Code, 26 U.S.C. §170(c)(1).

Full disclosure: I was recently appointed a member to the Timberland Regional Library Board of Trustees. I have worked in and with libraries for twenty years, (although I am not a librarian). Our firstborn is a librarian currently working as the Director of Libraries for a British boarding school (think Hogwarts) in a town outside Shanghai, China. To say we appreciate libraries is an understatement. However, given that both my son and I are dyslexic, we are not "book lovers."

Soliciting your ideas

If you know of a nonprofit that is doing something great, celebrating a success, needs some outstanding volunteers, or hosting an event, let me know! This column (aside from a little education) celebrates nonprofits! 

Mary Beth Harrington, CVA (Certified Volunteer Administrator) lives in Tumwater. She travels the country speaking at conferences and to individual organizations articulating issues facing nonprofits. Send your ideas to her at  MaryBeth@theJOLTnews.com