How to Promote National Library Card Sign-up Month

Key takeaways

• National Library Card Sign-up Month is a great time to reach out to your community, specifically those who are not already part of your audience.
• Your campaign should be all about storytelling. Leverage the power of positive stories of your cardholders and the library. Nothing is a stronger recommendation for getting a library card than the story of someone else.
• Make your plans and gather stories in August, and be ready to execute your plan in September. Don’t forget to set a goal for the number of new cardholders, analyze your results at the end, and find a fun way to tell your community how it went. 

I was lucky enough to have a mom who took her bookworm kid to the library, and then the library became part of my life forever. My library card has helped me find new favorite books and authors. It's gotten me entry to a hundred amazing programs. My card led me to my first job at a library. My card gets me through those times I want to go on a shopping spree, but instead I go to the library and check out an unreasonable number of books (usually curbs the impulse, highly recommend). I love my library card so much that I make sure other people have their library cards, too. I’m maybe not the most exciting person at a party, but I don’t care. Libraries open doors to new opportunities, and people should know!  

September is National Library Card Sign-up Month: A great time to make sure your community knows about all the ways a library card offers these new opportunities. Use the upcoming month to make your plans and then, in September, gather all your new cardholders. Read our 2025 guide below to get all our tips and ideas.

August is prep time

Now, we can tout all the benefits of getting a library card as loudly as possible — but nothing is more convincing than someone else saying others should get a card, too. So, your overarching strategy for National Library Card Sign-up Month must be to tell the positive library stories of your current cardholders.  

Here’s what we recommend you do during August to get ready:

Step One: Gather stories.

1. Aim to find stories from cardholders that represent different demographics in your community, and obviously from those whose lives were improved by the library. Look for caregivers, businesspeople, new residents, students, people who struggled financially, older cardholders, etc.  
2. To gather these initial “story leads,” put out a call on social media, via email, and on your website in August. Use a simple online survey (such as Google Forms) to collect the stories, and be sure to create a printed version to set out at library locations. Give people the option to include their name and contact information, and checkboxes that give you permission to share their stories and/or reach out to them with follow-up questions.
3. Reach out to the people who agreed to let you share their stories and ask to interview them. Take pictures and record them on video, if they agree. Ask that they sign a photography and media waiver, as well.

Step Two: Plan your promotional calendar.

1. Sit down and plan your promotional calendar for September. What emails will you send and when? Ditto for social media. Are you going to pay to boost any posts or set up ads? If your library has a blog, decide when you will post each story you gather. And what outreach events will you attend?  
2. While you can and should campaign using your usual channels (website, email, and social), what you’re really trying to do is reach people who are not currently in your audience. To find these people, drop off flyers with QR codes to your online library card application at popular local businesses and nonprofits. Do outreach at local events, like farmer’s markets, craft fairs, pet adoption programs, special shopping days (your sign can say “everything is free”, muhaha!), and back-to-school events. To reach homebound populations, it may be worth the money spent putting ads in local circulars or newspapers. Send press releases to your local media channels and find out if you can get a spot on one of those early morning shows (yes, you’ll have to get up really early, but it’ll be worth it!).  

Step Three: Design it.

During August, discuss and settle on a “look” for your campaign. One key to a successful promotional campaign is an engaging, cohesive design across all platforms, both digital and print. Make sure your designs and communications will tell people where they can go to sign up for a card.  

LibraryAware customers can get promotional materials finalized quickly with professionally designed templates for print and digital use. Just search “library card sign-up month” and save the templates you need.

Step Four: Be ready to talk.

Prepare talking points for your staff and coworkers. A few talking points can help guide conversations for staff to recruit new sign-ups. And some of these talking points might be helpful for your cardholders to use, too. Don’t shy away from asking your patrons to spread the word on your behalf.

One more thing...don’t forget to set a goal. How many new cardholders would you like to see as a result of your campaign? If you’ve never run a campaign for this month before, it may be hard to know. Try looking at how many new sign-ups you get during the year. Look at your highest month and aim higher!

Okay, just one more thing...look at your card sign-up process. Is it easy? Is it quick? Find ways to streamline the process and decide what sort of information is necessary to get a new cardholder on the books. Do they really need that one obscure document? And is everything still on paper, or can you get the process online? Once they sign up, what does your onboarding process look like? Do they get a new cardholder pamphlet or a series of welcome emails? Whatever it is, the conversation shouldn’t end once you hand them a new library card.

September is go-time!

National Library Card Sign-up Month begins on September 1st. It’s time to execute your promotions calendar and start bringing in those new cardholders.

Step One: Tell the stories.

1. Share your carefully gathered cardholder stories on your website, via email, and on your social media platforms. This is still good content for current cardholders (and donors!). But you’re also going to share these stories farther out to audiences you’re not currently communicating with. Pair these stories with a Call-to-Action to get a library card.
2. Execute your calendar of promotions for the whole month of September. You’ve got this!  
3. While you’re doing your thing, ask your community partners to share your promotions with their audiences, too. Do you have a favorite nonprofit that you work with throughout the year? I bet they’d be happy to share your posts on social media. Is there a literacy organization in town that might let you write something for their monthly email newsletter? Give that a shot, too!
4. Lastly, remember to record the number of new cardholders throughout the month. See if you can analyze the numbers daily — you may be able to say with certainty that an email you sent on a particular day led to a specific number of sign-ups. At the end of the month, see if you met your goal. If you did, congratulations! Next year, aim higher. If you didn’t, analyze your campaign and determine what went well and what didn’t, and make note of changes and/or new ideas for next year. 

Ten other creative ideas for National Library Card Sign-up Month!

Telling the stories of your cardholders may be the main strategy, but there are other fun and creative ways to get new cardholders, too. Here are some ideas:

1. Offer an incentive to sign up for a library card during September. “Anyone who signs up is entered to win a fabulous prize.” Partner with a local business or service to make it happen. Free advertising for them!
2. Run a Book Matchmaking table at a local event (like a bridal fair or speed-dating event, or art gallery open house) and help people find their next read. Sound intimidating? Bring a laptop and use NoveList Plus to help you make book recommendations on the spot, no stress. Have library card applications on hand!
3. One idea from our blog that I love: Ask current cardholders to recruit new cardholders for a chance to win a prize.
4. Drop off library card applications at senior living homes, community centers, museums, and more. Plan to pick up filled-out applications weekly.
5. Bring a group of library staff to volunteer their time at a nonprofit, in exchange for an opportunity to talk to the nonprofit staff about the library and how to get library cards.
6. September is also back-to-school season. Offer presentations on homework resources and research databases to local schools and gather card applications while you’re there.
7. Hold a contest for a new library card design to call attention to your campaign.
8. Turn your artistic staff members loose with sidewalk chalk and entice people inside to sign up. People love playing unexpected hopscotch.
9. Do you have any local influencers or celebrities? See if they’d be willing to share your message on their networks. They don’t have to be A-level movie actors. Just someone trusted in the community.
10. Ask local businesses for small discount cards for those who sign up. Everyone loves a discount on ice cream.

People like to hear how things went! Announce the number of new cardholders in October. Be creative. Find a visual way to make it fun, like a great infographic or a video of the number of new cardholders represented by bouncy balls dropping down a staircase. Is your town the Rubber Ducky Capital of the World? If you get 100 new card sign-ups, float 100 rubber duckies down the river. People (and the media) love that stuff.

Leigh Gaddy is the Lead/Demand Generation Marketing Specialist at NoveList. She is currently reading Greenwild: The Forest in the Sky by Pari Thomson.