As we celebrate National Library Week this April, we wanted to give you these fun and easy ways you can be a library champion and support your library!
1. Sign up for a library card!
A San Diego Public Library (SDPL) card is your key to all 36 city library locations and opens access to books, DVDs, museum passes, and more. You card allows you to download digital materials, use electronic databases, take online classes, use library computers, and much more. Or, get a My First Library Card for a young reader in your life.
Your library card is a passport to all the library has to offer.
2. Attend a Library Shop SD author talk
Visit the Library Shop SD to see who is coming to town.
On April 6, UCSD Sociology Professor Neil Gong launches his new book, Sons, Daughters, and Sidewalk Psychotics at the Central Library @ Joan Λ Irwin Jacobs Common.
3. Bring your kiddo to storytime
Join our family-friendly storytime with Zoe & Susie Ghahremani on April 12 with a guided interactive illustration lesson and a hands-on gardening activity.
Early literacy programs like storytime foster an early love of reading and build the development skills to succeed in school.
4. Celebrate the ‘Right to Read Day’
Do you know a youth impacted by book bans? Celebrate the ‘Right to Read Day’ on April 8 by sharing our Books Unbanned program, which provides a special library card to access banned books to youth experiencing book bans across the nation.
The Library Foundation SD believes reading is freedom and fights to protect that right.
5. Make a Library Giving Day gift
Make a Library Giving Day gift this month to Library Foundation SD and your gift will be matched up to $25,000!
Your gift supports critical library programs and helps the Library Foundation SD advocate for improved library funding.
6. Celebrate your local library worker
Let library staff for ‘National Library Worker’s Day’ on April 9 know how much you appreciate them by posting your testimonial on social media and tagging us (@LFSD).
The library’s most valuable resource is the highly trained and dedicated staff that work there.
7. Celebrate “Library Outreach Day”
Celebrate ‘Library Outreach Day’ by checking out the new Library Master Plan, which details a road map for a more equitable and successful library system that serves all of San Diego.
8. Take action for your library
Over the past 20 years, the city has fallen $640 million behind in City Council-approved library funding goals. Learn about the city budgeting process and how you can improve library funding by becoming a library advocate.
Library advocates make a difference and help ensure elected officials understand the importance of adequate library funding.
9. Send an advocacy postcard
We’ll send you pre-addressed, stamped postcards for you to send to the City Council and Mayor.
Our elected leaders need to hear from those who believe in the value of the library.
10. Sign up for Library Connections
What’s the hot new library program or author coming to town? Sign up for the library’s Library Connections e‑newsletter to receive the latest library news.
11. Explore the digital library
Use your SDPL library card number to learn a new language using Rosetta Stone, stream a film on Kanopy, or research your family genealogy using Ancestry.com.
12. Attend the San Diego Book Crawl
The San Diego Book Crawl is back for its 7th year with more participating bookstores and more prizes for crawlers! Visit our Library Shop SD and participating San Diego independent bookstores from April 27th to April 29th to collect exclusive prizes while you shop.
Library Shop SD proceeds support the entire San Diego Public Library system.
13. Visit a library art exhibit
The library’s acclaimed Arts & Culture Exhibition program features a flagship art gallery at the Central Library and exhibit space at many branches. These spaces showcase visual arts and cultural exhibitions and promote local artists and creative community groups.
Architecture of Jubilation showcases the works of architectural designer, sculptor, painter, stained-glass artist, and community activist James Hubbell.
14. Leave a lasting library legacy
Consider creating a legacy of literacy and lifelong learning by making a planned gift to the Library Foundation SD.
Norma Ferrara said she made a planned Library Foundation gift because no other institution “in our community reaches more people from every walk of life.”
15. Join Where’s Odi @ SDPL and collect prizes
Join us in July to search for the library’s mascot Odi the Coyote hidden in every San Diego Public Library branch. San Diegans of all ages are invited to see how many they can find and collect prizes as you go!
