Advocacy for Vermont’s Public Libraries

How You Can Help Vermont Libraries
Thank you so much for caring about Vermont public libraries. We appreciate your support! Vermont has more public libraries per capita than any other state and a vast diversity in what these libraries are and can offer. From tiny, one-room libraries that are open a few hours a week to the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington with 48,000 square feet of space and over 20 staff members, Vermont libraries are as diverse as our species of wildflowers.

There are many ways that you can support your local Vermont public library or Vermont public libraries statewide. Here are just a few action steps you can take.

  1. Vote for your library’s budget on town meeting day!
  2. Join the Friends of your local library. Friends groups are usually their own nonprofit entities. Volunteer-run, they plan and orchestrate fundraising events to raise money and buy needed items for their libraries.
  3. Talk it up! Let your friends, neighbors, and state legislators know that you love libraries. And make sure they know what your local library is up to. Word of mouth, social media posts, emails, and even letters to the editor are all forms of communication you can use. All of these keep the library on people’s minds and in their hearts.
  4. Donate funds to your local library if it is an incorporated library (i.e. not a town department.) Or if it is a part of the town, donate to your library’s Friends group!

Public libraries equalize the playing field for people across the economic spectrum and offer connection, entertainment, and information. Thank you again for supporting these important community institutions!

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Customizable Posters
The VLA Public Libraries Section is excited to announce an advocacy campaign in the form of five customizable posters. The goal of this campaign is to communicate what Vermont public libraries, collectively, achieve for Vermonters, as well as to highlight specific contributions from public libraries at the local level. Each poster is designed to be easily editable, so public libraries can personalize the poster by inserting their own statistics (instructions below).
We are hoping as many public libraries as possible will participate by downloading the posters, inserting their own statistics, and displaying them in their libraries, on their websites/social media, or around their town. Another benefit of the editable posters is that they can be updated and reused annually. We hope that public libraries can use these posters for advocacy work, now and in the future.
VLA is making these posters available to all public libraries indefinitely, so you may choose to use them if/whenever you like. Not every poster will be relevant to every library, so feel free to use the ones that work for you and leave the rest. If you do make use of these posters, please consider sending an email to dana.hart@ilsleypubliclibrary.org to let us know (it will be good to have an idea of how many libraries end up utilizing this resource).

Download the first set here and download the second set here. Sample poster shown below.

Instructions for Editing Posters
  • In PowerPoint
    • Open the file in PowerPoint. The posters are designed so that the only editable section is the third section of text, in black print in the bottom third of the poster. Move your cursor over this section and click on the text box.
    • You may now insert your library’s name and the relevant statistics. Delete the “___” sections and replace with your own text.
    • Save or export the edited file in the format of your choice and share with your community!
  • In Google Slides
    • If you do not have access to PowerPoint, these files are easily editable in Google Slides. Open Google Drive and upload the files by clicking on the button marked “New” and selecting “File Upload” from the dropdown menu. Alternatively, you may drag and drop the file icon into Google Drive. Open the file by double clicking on the file icon.
    • The posters are designed so that the only editable section is the third section of text, in black print in the bottom third of the poster. Move your cursor over this section and click on the text box.
    • You may now insert your library’s name and the relevant statistics. Delete the “___” sections and replace with your own text.
    • Download the edited file in the format of your choice and share with your community!

Poster saying "At Kimball Public Library, you can borrow cake pans, puzzles, and snowshoes. Check them out yourself! Are there another non-traditional item you’d like to see offered at the library? Let us know!"