How to support your public library
A few ideas to get you started.
USE YOUR LIBRARY
- Get a library card and check something out. This supports your library’s funding.
- Encourage others to get a card, too.
- Bring a friend to a program.
BE
INVOLVED
- Join your local Friends Group, or start a Friends Group.
- Talk to your librarian about the best ways to support your library.
- Join a book club.
BE
INFORMED
- Understand your freedom to read and learn about how libraries work.
- Keep up with what’s happening in library news, at library board meetings and in local government meetings.
SPEAK
UP
- Vote for candidates that support library funding.
- Share what you know with friends, neighbors and relatives.
- Share your Library Love Stories so we can share them with our elected officials.
Enjoy our freedom to read!
Everyone has the right to seek and receive information from all points of view without restriction.
- Your freedom to information is a cornerstone of our democracy.
- It’s a public library’s responsibility to provide for the needs and interests of their entire community.
- You have both the right and the responsibility to choose what you and your family read.
Read on to learn about how to protect and support our public libraries!
BE
INFORMED
What libraries do
Libraries are so much more than buildings that hold books! Today’s public libraries:
- serve people of every age, income level, location, ethnicity, and physical ability, with the full range of information resources needed to live, learn, govern, and work;
- build community by providing a safe public gathering place and accessible resources;
- promote literacy and life-long learning;
- protect your freedom to read.
Your professional librarians
Library workers are responsive, welcoming, and dedicated to our communities.
Library directors are professionals, and are certified by the state of Wisconsin. Continuing education requirements make sure they stay up-to-date on best practices in all the skills needed to run a successful library. Just a few of those are budgeting and human resources, customer service and community partnerships, legal requirements and reporting.
And of course carefully selecting all the wonderful things for you to check out. All that is to make sure your library is the very best that it can be.
How public libraries are funded
The general answer is that public library services in Wisconsin are primarily provided by local units of government such as municipalities and counties. The state plays a major role in ensuring coordination and resource sharing among libraries. Libraries are governed by a board of directors.
The specifics are more complicated. Your local library’s annual report can give you more financial specifics, or reach out to your library director.
This graphic is fron the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction’s Public Library Funding and Budgets page. You can download a pdf of this infographic and get more detailed information on that page.
SPEAK
UP
My Vote Wisconsin
WHAT’S YOUR STORY?
Stay in the know!
Subscribe to The News from IFLS to get monthly updates about what’s happening in library news, as well as Tips for Trustees and advocacy opportunities.
Click the Action Alert box to get occasional notices about action you can take to support public libraries!
This page is developed and hosted by the IFLS Library System ©2023. The IFLS Library System is a state-funded support agency for 53 vibrant public libraries in a 10-county area of west-central Wisconsin, founded in 1978. IFLS staff and our partner libraries collaborate to provide outstanding, engaged and inclusive services that contribute to informed, connected and literate communities. For more information about IFLS please go to our website at iflsweb.org.