National Library Card Sign-up Month
Go get yourself a library card and take advantage of all the books, computers, magazines, events and other media and resources your library can provide.
Partner with libraries to drive community engagement and position your brand as a supporter of literacy and free access to knowledge during National Library Card Sign-up Month.
- Share a personal story about how a library card changed your life or learning journey
- Highlight lesser-known library resources beyond books (digital archives, maker spaces, tech access)
- Create a 'library card challenge' encouraging followers to sign up and share their first library haul
- Partner with local libraries to offer exclusive discounts or in-store events for new cardholders
In order to pursue the history of this celebration we have to dig back into history and find the roots of the library, and in turn, the library card. Our first example of what we would consider a library can be found in 2600BC when they were essentially massive archives of inch-thick clay tablets inscribed with one of the first forms of writing, cuneiform. In these archives, the tablets were stored much like our modern books, complete with a description of their contents inscribed upon the side. In Egypt, we’d find papyrus being used that contained temple and government records, and in these times both public and private archives were found.
One of the greatest libraries of all time was the Library of Alexandria in Egypt, which functioned as both a storehouse of knowledge and a place of great scholarship until it was burned in 30 BC during the Roman conquest. This library also had one of the first organizational systems found. As the years moved on libraries were a part of every great culture, and in the modern world, they still serve an important role, with library cards tracking what we check out, when it should be returned, and when it’s returned.