LibGuides: Library Card Sign Up Month: Home

September is Library Card Sign-Up Month!

Get in Your Element this September, and sign up for a library card! From borrowing books, board games, and museum passes to learning new skills, a library card helps you do more of what you enjoy.

A library card is your ticket to lifelong learning — it's elemental, really — and everyone should have one! Do you have friends or neighbors who don't have a library card? Invite them to sign up during September.

How to get a Library Card

Apply for a Virtual Library Card
If you do not have an EAPL Card, are 15 years old and up, and live in the EASD you are eligible to apply for a NEW EAPL Card online.

Use Your Library Card in September!

To celebrate our patrons and Library Card Sign-Up Month, we are giving away a $100 VISA gift card from both our Main Library and Palmer Branch locations. Must be 18+ to enter.

Visit either location in the month of September, use your library card to check out books, DVDs, games, museum passes, and more, and then enter to win! Winners will be announced at the end of the month.

Go Beyond Books at EAPL and learn more about:

Libraries are Elemental Bingo Challenge for all ages!

Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month with us! Explore the Library and all the learning & fun it has to offer while earning badges on a bingo card! Complete all 9 library-related activities and earn an entry in our raffle. Two lucky winners will receive a special Readers Prize Pack. Pick up a bingo card at the Main Library or Palmer or register on Beanstack.

Register on Beanstack

Here are are some additional resources for celebrating Library Card Sign Up Month

Ways to Celebrate and Spread the Word from I Love Libraries
Library Card Sign-Up Month offers an opportunity to get involved with your local library and check out all the great services it offers your community. Here are a few ways you can celebrate and help spread the word about the joys of getting a library card.
Learn about the history of Library Card Sign-Up Month from the ALA Archives
The campaign started in 1987 as a response to then Secretary of Education William Bennett, who stated, “Let’s have a campaign … Every child should obtain a library card and use it.” Read a detailed account in this 2015 blog post at the American Library Association Archives, A Library Card for Every Child: Library Card Sign-Up Month, by Cara Bertram.

Download the Elemental Coloring Pages!

Download the Coloring Pages Here!

Library Card Sign-up Month is made possible with support from:

Thank you to Disney and Pixar for allowing Elemental characters Ember and Wade to help spread the word about the value of a library card during Library Card Sign-up Month 2023.

Disney and Pixar’s Elemental, in theaters now, is an all-new, original feature film set in Element City, where fire-, water-, land- and air residents live together. The story introduces Ember, a tough, quick-witted and fiery young woman, whose friendship with a fun, sappy, go-with-the-flow guy named Wade challenges her beliefs about the world they live in. Elemental is directed by Peter Sohn, produced by Denise Ream and features the voices of Leah Lewis, Mamoudou Athie.