Mayor's Office

Did you know that 49% of Madisonians have a library card?

Madison’s public libraries play an important role in our City, so I’m pleased to announce that this is National Library Week! First celebrated in 1958, National Library Week is an annual celebration highlighting the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.
 

This year’s theme, “There's More to the Story,” highlights all the different ways people can connect with their library—through collections, programs, services, digital access and spaces—and focuses on all the different stories in and about libraries. Whether job searching, or teaching a child to read, or opening a small business is part of your story, libraries have resources and services to help you be successful and civically engaged. Madison’s libraries partner with other City agencies to promote and expand services, too, such as serving as in-person absentee voting sites, providing COVID tests and masks, and distributing information about city services.

Now more than ever, the story of libraries is important. Libraries provide materials on all perspectives to all people. At a time when there are an unprecedented number of attempts to remove books from school and public libraries across the nation, public libraries protect everyone’s right to choose the books that are right for them and their families.

I hope you’ll join me in celebrating National Library Week, and sharing your library story with our dedicated and hardworking library staff by visiting a library near you, where you can get your own free library card if you don’t already have one. Or learn more about the library’s week of activities.