Joining your local Friends of the Library group is a great way to help your local library. The library was one of my favorite places as a kid, and I still feel an affinity for it as an adult. I wanted to get more involved with our local library and found a great way to help was to join the Friends group.
Almost every library has a special group of “friends,” which is a non-profit organization formed to help support their library outside out what the government provides.
Friends of the Beaches Branch Library
I joined our local library’s group Friends of the Beaches Branch Library, or FOBBL, and became a board member just over a year ago. I built and run the website FOBBLjax.org, and the Facebook page.
You can learn all about FOBBL, see the funds in action and even join and pay membership dues through the website. For more than 45 years FOBBL, a nonprofit section 501(c)(3) entity, has worked to stimulate public interest, understanding and use of the Beaches Branch Library, and to promote and develop programs to improve its services, resources, and facilities.
Joining FOBBL as a member requires zero commitment besides choosing a membership level and paying your annual dues. That dues goes completely to the library to help support fun programs and events, library supplies, informational seminars, and more. You also get early entry into FOBBL’s spring and fall book sale events.
Be a Friend to Your Local Library
The National Friends of the Library organization, also known as the Friends of Libraries U.S.A. (FOLUSA), is a network of local chapters and supporters dedicated to advocating for and supporting public libraries across the United States.
FOLUSA chapters, such as Friends of the Beaches Branch Library (FOBBL), work to promote and develop programs that improve library services, resources, and facilities. FOLUSA serves as a platform for these local chapters to come together, share best practices, and collectively contribute to the enrichment of library experiences for communities nationwide.
If your library doesn’t have a friends group, and you’d like to get one started, click here for a helpful guide on starting your own friends group.
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The library has always been my happy place – everyone said they would ‘disappear’ when books went online and into your ears, but our local library is still thriving; mums’n’bubs is a huge success. Nice to meet a fellow library-lover. Take care, Linda x
A lot of people don’t realize there’s so much more to the library than books! I hadn’t been in a long time, and started going back when my son was little and fell in love with the library all over again.
one of our mothers group mums was the same, she loved it so much she went back to school to retrain and is now a librarian! Xx
I actually looked into that, lol