Woman's Day and Entrepreneurship

New Woman’s Day initiative asks readers to share stories on how the library helped them start their businesses;
Issue features four winners of "how the library changed my life" initiative

Every year, more than 500,000 entrepreneurs start new businesses in the United States. But how and where to they get the resources and support it takes to succeed? The answer is @ your library.

From now until May 10th, Woman’s Day magazine, in conjunction with ALA’s Campaign for America’s Libraries, is collecting stories on how its readers have used the library to start their small businesses.

The magazine announced the initiative in its March 6 issue, where it asks its women readers aged 18 and over to submit their stories in 700 words or less. Stories can be sent to womansday@ala.org. Four of the submissions will be featured the March 2008 issue of Woman’s Day.

Librarians can promote this initiative locally by downloading sample promotional materials from The Campaign for America's Libraries’ Web site at www.ala.org/@yourlibrary. Sample tools include a press release, newsletter copy and Web button.

Also featured in the March 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.