Season 1 of 5: ROOT
We don’t need to go out on a limb to say that library cards are fantastic. Like sunshine brightening a forest, library cards enrich and empower the Lake Forest community with resources to facilitate literacy, resilience, and growth.
That’s why we’re inviting you to celebrate “5 Seasons of Library Card Love & Prize Drawings” with us. Each season will feature an arboreal theme, share ways that library cards are beneficial, and have two prize drawings for adults, one each for new and active cardholders.
Our goal is for 10% more Lake Foresters to get and use library cards by December 2025. That means that out of approximately 19,000 residents, the stable pool of library cardholders climbs from 7,300 to 8,000.
Season 1 Prizes
New and active cardholders are eligible to enter their respective prize drawing once each quarter, plus additional entries from successful referrals. (Details are in the following “Root for Library Cards” section.)
When you sign up for or use your Lake Forest Library card September through November, you are automatically entered for a chance to win a Kindle Paperwhite!
Root for Library Cards
If you already have and use your library card, your word of mouth can help us increase the number of cardholders. Please join us throughout the TREEmendous Library Card campaign to spread the roots of a strong, literate community across Lake Forest.
Through November 2025, complete the webform at www.lakeforestlibrary.org/refer to let us know when you encourage a fellow Lake Forester to get a library card. For every webform you submit, you get an extra entry in that season’s prize drawing!
The Who & How of Library Cards
Who is eligible for a Lake Forest Library card and its full suite of benefits? Every ...
- Lake Forest Resident from birth onward,
- LF College Student,
- LF School (School administration applies for a card, and their teachers can use it according to the admin’s discretion),
- LF Business Owner,
- City of Lake Forest Employee, and
- Caregiver or Nanny of LF Families!
All you need to get a Lake Forest Library card is (1) A current photo ID and (2) Proof of residency. For details, go to www.lakeforestlibrary.org/card.
One Card Each
Does only one person in your household have a library card, and the rest of the family shares it? Instead, get a library card for each person! Refer to the “Many Cards, One App” section to learn how to conveniently manage multiple library cards.
Through November 2025, for each member of your household who signs up for their own library card, you can complete the webform at www.lakeforestlibrary.org/refer and get an extra prize drawing entry!
Many Cards, One App
You can add multiple library cards into the Lake Forest Library App, making it easy to switch between cards to place holds and check due dates, or you can continue using one card for your household and just keep the other cards from expiring.
Find the Lake Forest Library App in your device’s app store.
As explained in the American Library Association Freedom to Read Statement, “The freedom to read is essential to our democracy. It is continuously under attack. ... Most attempts at suppression rest on a denial of the fundamental premise of democracy: that the ordinary individual, by exercising critical judgment, will select the good and reject the bad. We trust Americans to recognize propaganda and misinformation, and to make their own decisions about what they read and believe.”
On the Lake Forest on Topic podcast, Lake Forest Library Executive Director Ishwar spoke to the issue of book ban attempts.
“We are always willing to talk to individuals and concerned residents, and we hope to persuade them that what we’re doing is really to broaden that child’s horizon. And then it’s ultimately at the end of the day a parental responsibility in terms of what you let your kids read. If you have a strong opinion, we respect that, but to say that nobody else in the community should read this book, or it should not be available or accessible to anybody else, we don’t subscribe to that point of view. Because we are about open access to all.”
Listen to Ishwar’s complete conversation with Tim Finnegan about the future of libraries, what’s next at Lake Forest Library, advances in technology, and more. Search in your browser or podcast app for the May 11, 2024, episode.
During the later part of September, explore Banned Books by browsing and borrowing from displays in the Libby app and at the Library, solve a crossword puzzle available on the Main Level, and tackle a Breakout Box challenge in the Children’s Library.