WELCOME TO ACT FOR LIBRARIES, a website designed to help all library advocates, from teens to trustees to town officials, strengthen their libraries and their communities.

Click here for a complete index of libraries mentioned on Act for Libraries.

ACT FOR LIBRARIES brings together data, tools and new ideas to support action for and investment in libraries. It includes examples of success and examples of failures and it points library advocates to the multiple resources that exist within and outside the library community to support effective citizen action.

Act for Libraries helps advocates share successes, such as the New Haven students whose walk-a-thon helped fund a new branch library.

This website draws on 14 years of advocacy experience from Libraries for the Future (LFF) as well as our national network of passionate librarians and library supporters.   (Note that from 2004-2007, LFF operated under the parent organization, Americans for Libraries Council.  As of September 17, 2007, the organizations have reunited as Libraries for the Future.)

This site was developed through the generosity of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which sponsored a three-part library advocacy initiative that includes this website as well as the national public opinion study Long Overdue and the newly-published economic valuation report Worth Their Weight: An Assessment of the Evolving Field of Library Valuation.

Throughout the site, look for references to the Top Ten Advocacy Strategies. These are defined at length in the Action section of this website and illustrated in the various profiles and stories you will find here. If there is one constant that unifies this mosaic, it is citizen engagement. Whether it is residents who rally to save a library in crisis or citizens who organize for new investment in buildings or technology or programs, they are the key to the future of the library.

Speaking out for libraries is democracy in action.

No site devoted to America's 16,500 public libraries could hope to be comprehensive. However, we are pleased to offer a rich array of resources and to link to many other sources of advice for action. To assist in understanding the depth and breadth of actions for libraries across the country, we will periodically highlight activism in different regions. Currently, Act for Libraries is proud to honor the anniversary of Hurricane Katrina with a focus on the Gulf Coast states.

As we build ACT FOR LIBRARIES, we encourage your participation and look forward to learning about your library support experiences, your actions for libraries, and your recommendations for building a movement of library activists across the nation.

Contact us with your ideas and questions at act@actforlibraries.org.