Download I Love Libraries Web badges for your site.

Gamers! Visit I Love Libraries at Gen Con 2008, booth #1430.

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month, and NBA superstar and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is the honorary chair for the annual event. Learn more on the I Love Libraries Library Card Sign-Up Month page.

How do I prove the value of libraries? Learn the answer to that and more on I Love Libraries' Ask the Librarian page.

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month

Library Card Sign-Up Month READ poster featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

September is Library Card Sign-up Month–a time when the American Library Association and libraries across the country remind parents that a library card is the most important school supply of all.

Libraries play an important role in the education and development of children. Studies show that children who are read to in the home and who use the library perform better in school and are more likely to continue to use the library as a source of lifetime learning.

Library cards are generally free to those living in the library's service area. In most cases, borrowing privileges are granted on the spot. Some libraries may require some form of identification, proof of residency or the signature of a guardian.

This year, NBA legend and author Kareem Abdul-Jabbar is this year's honorary Library Card Sign-up Month chair. “The library has always been my own personal time machine. I can walk through the doors and land in any place, any time period in history. I didn’t have to wonder what their worlds were like; I could experience it first hand,” Jabbar has said.

For more from Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, read his interview with I Love Libraries about the role of libraries in his life and how libraries can help others, or listen to his Library Card Sign-Up Month Public Service Announcements.

Library Card Sign-Up Month Public Service Announcements featuring Kareem Abdul-Jabbar
All are in mp3 format.
PSA #1 (15 sec.)
PSA #2 (20 sec.)
PSA #3 (20 sec.)
PSA #4 (30 sec.)
PSA #5 (30 sec.)

Useful and interesting links
I Love Libraries' Find a Library page.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's web site, which includes a his regularly updated blog.
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's READ poster.
Other celebrity READ posters.

Tools for Parents and Caregivers
Born to Read, a brochure on how to raise a reader available for purchase or free download in English or Spanish.
Great Web sites for Kids recommended by the Association for Library Service to Children.
Recommended book lists from the Association for Library Service to Children.
Great reads for teens from the Young Adult Library Services Association.

Library Facts Quotable Facts About America's Libraries (PDF format).
The number of libraries in the United States.
The nation's largest libraries by number of volumes held.