CLERMONT COUNTY, Ohio — A local library added one of its youngest cardholders yet this week, issuing a library card to a girl not quite 2 weeks old as part of a national campaign to get more children signed up to read.
Clermont County Public Library said in a Facebook post that staff created a card for the newborn, identified only as Andie, calling her “a VERY new library user” already devoted to reading.
The sign-up came during September’s Library Card Sign-Up Month, a nationwide campaign the American Library Association has run every September since 1988. The observance grew out of a 1987 push by then-U.S. Secretary of Education William Bennett, who urged parents to get their children signed up for library cards; the association’s original campaign, “The Best Gift You’ll Ever Give Your Child… A Library Card,” launched that October with a rally on the National Mall attended by more than 500 children. The following year the association moved the observance to September to coincide with the start of the school year, and it has stayed there since.
Clermont County Public Library encouraged residents of all ages to get their own card during the campaign, saying people can sign up at any branch or online.
The county library system dates to 1948, when voters approved creating it. A seven-member board of trustees was appointed in 1949, and library service began in 1955, funded initially through a local personal property tax. The system has since grown to 10 branches, serving Amelia, Batavia, Bethel, Felicity, Goshen, Milford, New Richmond, Owensville, Union Township and Williamsburg — an expansion driven in part by a levy pushed by former library director Leo Meirose in the 1980s aimed at putting a branch within 15 minutes of every county resident.
The information contained in this story was obtained from Clermont County Public Library.