We serve more than 40 percent of the county as the busiest library system in Alabama, and this comes with significant costs. Still recovering from budget cuts in 2009 and 2010, and ranking 128th in the state in per capita funding, our patrons used over 2.5 million items last year and never felt the pinch! But the library feels that pinch every day.

Huntsville Library Foundation

Fiscal Year 2016-2017Advocacy Position Paper

Your library. Your future. Want to learn a new language, join a club, take a computer class, watch a movie, research your family history, attend a lecture, or just read a book? You can do all of these things without ever having to go beyond your local branch of the Huntsville-Madison County Public Library (HMCPL).

One Library, 12 branches, countless resources

More than 500,000 books

and nearly 15,000 archival materials

Over 8,700 digital titles and 3 free digital

book and music services

More than 20 online

databases

More than 5,000 programs annually for children, teens,

and adults

$1.4 M

Help the Huntsville Library Foundation increase awareness, funding opportunities, and support for HMCPL. Ask your constituents if they use the library, stop by and check out a book, or hold an event at a local branch. Ask them if they realize that our mission is vital to all people in Madison County. Your support of your Library will help everyone’s future.

Through events like Vive le Livre, Community Conversations, and other fundraisers, HLF raises money and public awareness about the Library’s mission. This lets us sponsor program-based grants at individual branches, a system-wide digital media program, and library materials.

In the past 30 years, HLF has raised over $1.4 million to supplement the Library’s needs.

HMCPL does a lot with a little, but meager financial resources will not let us keep pace with the exciting advances happening in 21st-century libraries. Our community is a leader in technological research, but our libraries are ill-equipped to support those in-dustries through STEM, STEAM, and cyber programming. This is where U.S. libraries are going, and we are being left behind.

HMCPL needs help, and that is where the Huntsville Library Foundation (HLF) steps in. We’re dedicated to keeping the Library at the center of our community. Our mission is simple: Support and enhance the quality of life in Madison County by boosting HMCPL’s educational, economic, and entertainment opportunities. We take our mission seriously.

We want to do more for our Library, but we need your help.

YOUR FUTURE

YOUR LIBRARY