4 Ideas for September's Library Card Sign-Up Month

In a few weeks is September's Library Card Sign-Up Month! This year's spokespeople are The Incredibles, and you can go to ALA's page to grab really awesome graphics to use for advertising and social media, like we used in our advertisement:

But besides posting pictures, what is your library doing this year? Not sure? Here are a few ideas shared on Facebook, retold here for your convenience:

Make a Visual To Represent New Cardholders

To celebrate new library members, you could keep track of every new one visually. One idea was to create a tree on a window and everyone can put up a leaf when they get a new card. What a cool way to show the community how many new members are joining!

Tap into Local Celebrities

Another library system took a picture of their county judge showing his library card and used it in advertisements and social media. You can do this with anyone well known in your community -- school principals, the mayor, radio station personalities, etc. -- to catch the eye of nonlibrary users to send them to your library.

Show Your Card for a Special Treat

Add some fun to the children's room! Ask children patrons to show their card for a special library treat, connected to ALA's theme. (i.e. Last year was Snoopy, so they gave out Peppermint Patties.) It was a big hit with the kids!

Random Prizes for New and *Returning* Cardholders

Everyone who signs up for a library card is put into a drawing for gift cards and event passes. You can take this a step further and reach out to patrons who haven't used the library in 3 months and invite them back! When they use their library card, they can also win prizes.

If you have any fun library card sign-up ideas, we'd love to hear them in the comments!