Woman’s Day asks women entrepreneurs to share stories on how the library helped them start their businesses

From March 6th until May 10th, Woman’s Day magazine, in conjunction with American Library Association’s (ALA) Campaign for America’s Libraries, has been collecting stories on how its readers have used the library to start their small businesses.

Women readers, aged 18 and over, were asked to submit their stories in 700 words or less.  Librarians are promoting this initiative locally by downloading sample promotional materials from The Campaign for America's Libraries’ Web site at www.ala.org/@yourlibrary.  The tools include a press release, newsletter copy and Web button.

Featured in the March 6th issue are the four winners of the "how the library changed my life" initiative.  The stories include a mother who turned to the library during a bout of post-partum depression, an Indonesian immigrant who used books from her childhood public library to learn English, a mother who used the library to help find her place in a new community, and a blind writer and teacher who uses the free books-on-tape service from the Library of Congress as an everyday escape.

Woman’s Day received nearly 2,000 essays in response to the call for entries, the most it has ever received in response to an initiative of this type. Later this spring, ALA will make many of these stories available through a searchable online database.

Woman’s Day is a Founding Partner of The Campaign for America’s Libraries, the ALA’s multi-year public awareness and advocacy campaign to promote the value of libraries and librarians in the 21st century. Other Founding Partners include Dollar General, the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) and the National Baseball Hall of Fame and Museum. The Campaign is made possible in part by ALA’s Library Champions, ALA’s highest level of corporate members, who support public awareness and advocacy for America’s libraries.

Karen R. Schneiderman, Research and Instructional Services Librarian, Drexel University College of Law Library

Editor's Note: I'm delighted to announce that Karen Schneiderman has joined the editorial board of Law Librarian Blog as a contributing editor. Before joining Drexel, Karen's most recent law library experience was in the Cleveland office of Baker & Hostetler, an international law firm. Karen has over twenty years of legal experience and practiced in a variety of settings including a legal aid office; a labor union; a private law firm; and a judicial legal department.

Karen also has a great sense of humor which she may need when she learns that I worked the other side of labor-management relations when I worked for Seyfarth, Shaw back in the 1980s. [JH]