Love Your Library: Annual campaign supports Allegheny County lending institutions

You don’t need to know the Dewey Decimal System to enjoy today’s libraries.

“There’s so much more going on than just books,” Allegheny County Library Association chief executive officer Amy Anderson said. “That’s an important part of what we do. It’s never going to go away.”

But people who remember the days of rummaging through card catalogs and sternly being shushed may not realize the scope of 21st-century offerings, from vast arrays of programming for all ages to vast inventories of digital material available for download.

And generally, it’s free.

While libraries receive various degrees of funding from governmental entities, their ability to finance serving the wants and needs of their communities depends to a growing extent on raising money, themselves.

To give such efforts a boost, the ACLA’s Love Your Library campaign takes place each September. Throughout the month, donations made to each of the county’s libraries are matched on a prorated basis, up to $200,000 total, by the Jack Buncher Foundation.

“It’s a wonderful program and a way to help libraries do more with the funding they get,” Anderson said.

Last year, the campaign raised a record $1.23 million in charitable contributions by more than 7,450 donors, including almost 1,600 first-timers. Since its inception, Love Your Library has generated more than $5.26 million.

The drive coincides with the American Library Association’s National Library Card Sign-Up Month, and for Allegheny County residents, obtaining one has quite a few perks.

“If you have a card that you got from Upper St. Clair,” Anderson said as an example, “it will work anywhere in the county at any of the libraries. You could go right now and pick up a book off the shelf.”

It wouldn’t have to be returned at the same place, but at any county library, “whatever’s convenient for you, whether it’s close to where you work or your home,” she said.

Through the ACLA’s online catalog, materials can be reserved for pickup.

“It also allows us to have books delivered to you,” Anderson said. “If South Fayette has a book that you really want and you can’t go over there to get it, we can have it delivered to your library. And it will all be delivered to you free of charge.

“We’re all linked on the same system, so it makes for a nice service for everyone in the county.”

For more information, visit loveyourlibrary.org.