Did you receive a library postcard?

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We are here to help our library members – over 300 of them! 

It is no secret. Here at CMLE Headquarters we just love libraries!! Our job is to support our member libraries, and it is a fantastic mission.

We want everyone else to join us in our love and support of libraries.

So we host periodic Postcard Parties for our members. We invite everyone to send postcards to their stakeholders, to tell them about the value libraries are bringing to the communities they serve.

We provide a variety of library advocacy resources below.

If you have any questions about libraries, or library advocacy, and the value libraries bring to their communities: Email us at admin@cmle.org!

Check out the information from the Minnesota Library Advocacy from the MLA legislative committee! Check out all the great information here, including some fun videos giving you tips on visiting legislators!

Here are just a few quick facts about library value:

  • There are more public libraries than Starbucks in the U.S.
  • There are 2,854 visits per minute to public libraries in the US
  • Libraries answer nearly 6.6 million questions weekly. Standing single file, the line of questioners would span from Miami, Florida to Juneau, Alaska.
  • Americans go to libraries 3 times as often as they go to movies
  • more people visit library programs that all MLB and NBA games combined
  • highest achieving students attend schools with well-staffed and
    well-funded school libraries
  • Libraries strengthen local economies
  • Libraries create healthier communities
  • Libraries are the place for lifelong learning
  • Libraries provide technology
  • library computers are used +7 million times, with a value of $30,546,094
  • for every $1 invested in MN public libraries, $4.62 in value is returned
  • public libraries provide impact of 4,202 jobs to Minnesota
  • public library operations deliver an estimated 3,674 jobs to Minnesota
Library Return on Investment material

There are many different ways of calculating the value a library returns to its community – but all methods come up with the same result: We are an enormous value! Work through some of these ideas, to be able to show your funders and stakeholders all the value you are providing!

Here are some facts about the threatened closure of our federal funding agency, the Institute for Library and Museum Services.
  • This is the source of money for all our LSTA grants – between $500,000 and $600,000 each year in Minnesota.
  • They provide nearly $3 million each year to Minnesota for library services.
  • Part of that money, nearly $1.2 million funds Minitex to provide statewide interlibrary loan delivery – reaching nearly every public library in the state, most colleges and universities, and some schools.
  • Minitex also provides statewide instruction in ELM (Electronic Library for Minnesota) that I know many of you use daily.
  • Nearly $550,000 of this money supports the Minnesota Braille and Talking Book Library, serving around 10,000 people every year, in addition to institutions across the state.
  • It also funds data collection, software subscriptions, Early Literacy Training, bookmarks, posters, the Libraries Serving Youth Meetup, and more.

If IMLS is eliminated – all these programs will either also be eliminated, or will force the shifting of priorities and funding from other library services here in Minnesota.

Some Advocacy Resources

ALA Advocacy Resources

Advocacy Resources

Some tools to find your elected officials: