News and Updates

It should be very clear to library advocates and leaders that the fate of public libraries, school libraries, and college and university libraries is inextricably tied to the financial stability of state and municipal funding. The situation for towns, cities, counties, school districts, and states are grave, but there is a chance to blunt the worst effects for libraries and the communities and campuses they serve - but only if we understand how funding really works. 

The library industry is under threat from a number of major crises simultaneously during these uncertain times, particularly the loss of financial and voter support. The COVID-19 crisis has decimated the fundamental municipal tax base that funds school and public libraries. Even libraries that were doing well before the crisis may be facing new challenges. Without community support, libraries will continue to drastically lose funding in the coming years.

EveryLibrary is in the news in 2020 in stories about the federal budget, the COVID crisis and libraries, advocacy for school library programs, and legislation affecting access to libraries, books, and reading. 

We’re excited to announce a partnership with PressReader to give public libraries 2 months of complimentary access to the PressReader platform for Newspapers and Magazines.

Our colleagues at International Library Services are committed to supporting libraries and library workers by contributing 10% of the proceeds from the sales of their book sanitizing machines to help us build public support for library funding across the United States.

EveryLibrary is excited to partner with Mango Languages to help every person in the United States who wants to start learning a new language have free personal access to over 70+ languages through their public library through June 30th, 2020. 

Public libraries will be financially hurt by Coronavirus economic crisis even as they are called on to help more residents in their own personal crises and community-wide challenges. It is mission-critical for library leaders and library workers at all levels to understand the economic and tax policy issues that will affect library budgets, and quite possibly your own employment. This will not be a short-term problem for our sector and requires us to focus on stabilizing current-year revenues and expenses, diversifying revenue over the long term, and finding new revenue and service alignments across jurisdictions to ensure that libraries are viable. 

Public libraries buy a tremendous amount of office supplies, building supplies, cleaning supplies, food and beverages, arts and crafts supplies, and other materials. Your loading dock, backroom, or custodial closet is at the end of a very long global supply chain. Everything from copy paper, gardening equipment, coffee pods, art supplies, and HVAC filters are needed in order to run your library very day. In the current Coronavirus economic crisis, it is critically important for library leaders to reconsider their normal approach to purchasing these everyday products to ensure that it benefits the local economy. We are calling on library leaders to shift your purchasing and sourcing away from chain stores and online mega-retail and relocalize it to independent retailers and suppliers.

The CARES Act contains several new financial supports that could be used by 501(c)3 nonprofit libraries in the face of the Coronavirus economic slowdown. These new provisions are administered by the SBA and are intended to help nonprofits (as corporations) make payroll, pay the rent or mortgage, and meet other obligations for 2.5 months and up to $10 million. Key programs are structured as "forgivable loans" which turn into grants if certain criteria are met. They focus on supporting the non-profit sector, so libraries with a nonprofit corporate structure would be wise to understand the programs and access this federal funding if needed. 

Can you "Help a Library Worker Out"? The EveryLibrary Institute is fundraising to support library workers, librarians, and staff who are facing unexpected financial difficulties because of the Coronavirus economic slowdown. As a national library 501c3 non-profit organization, the EveryLibrary Institute is in a unique position to quickly bring together donors from across the country and make grants to library workers who are part of our library family.