La Crosse County library celebrates National Library Card signup month, eliminates daily fines

A new social media campaign at La Crosse County libraries this month.

September is Library Card Signup Month — a time when the La Crosse County Library joins the American Library Association (ALA) and libraries nationwide to remind people of all ages that signing up for a library card gives them free access to thousands of physical and digital items that educate, inform, stimulate and entertain.

This year, the library is doing a “Get Carded” social media campaign through the five five Coulee Region locations in Bangor, Campbell, Holmen, Onalaska and West Salem.

The Around River City team got in on the action as well on TikTok:

Library cards may be obtained in person (with proof of current address) at any of those five locations or online.

Fall is also a good time to clean out your home and find those overdue library items that might have found a hiding space over the last year.

Libraries hope to get back many of these items so that others have a chance to borrow them.

In that regard, they’re eliminating daily fines but after three weeks, other charges will be imposed with a new recovery process for handling items.

If an item is three-or-more weeks overdue, a $2 recovery fee, per item, is added to your account along with the replacement cost of that item.

If an item is returned, the replacement cost is removed from their account. The recovery fees, however, will need to be paid.

The La Crosse County Library also has in-person programing throughout September. These include:

1. Outdoor Story Time Youth Program: Our young friends and their grown-ups can join us for Family Outdoor Story Times September 13-October 29. Geared toward ages 2-6, all are welcome in these fun-filled interactions with our Youth Services Team designed to engage children’s love of learning and exploration through lots of mindful movement, play, songs, rhymes, and stories. We’ll feature themes like Food and Family, Autumn, Light, Monsters, Time, and more! Everyone is asked to dress for the weather and bring along a blanket or chairs. Cancellations will be posted at our locations and on our social media sites. Check out our special story time book displays inside, and when kids sign up for their first library card, they can add their name to our September display boards in the youth spaces of each of our five locations.

1. Senior Moments Program: Adults age 50+ can enjoy enriching topics on Wednesdays at 10:00 am at the Onalaska Public Library. We are grateful to our sponsor the Ben and Floyde Sias Foundation for support our speakers and performers.
2. Movies: We have a great lineup of movies for the fall and are working on having them shown at all five of our locations. Bangor and Campbell are currently in the process to make this happen soon. A complete schedule can be found on our website at lacrossecountylibrary.org.

3. Community Outreach: The La Crosse County Library continues to adapt to the needs of our communities. We offer Outreach Services to individual adults who are temporarily or permanently unable to visit the Library on their own due to illness, disability, or some other extenuating circumstance. La Crosse County Library also offers services to facilities that wish to offer library materials to their residents. All delivery services are subject to the availability of volunteers or scheduled library staff.

Libraries are a valuable resource and they want to encourage everyone to Get Carded.