TREEmendous Library Card Campaign: TURN OVER A NEW LEAF

image of "TREEmendous Library Card Campaign: New Leaf"

Season 1 was ROOT. Season 2 was LOG ON. Season 3 was BRANCH OUT.
Season 4 is TURN OVER A NEW LEAF.

What's new in your life? A new school year? A new addition to your family? A new interest or hobby? A new career or retirement? A new challenge to understand and overcome? Join us in turning over a new leaf in your life and a new page in your story!

With the full leafy tree canopies of summer upon us, now is the perfect time to try something new with the help of your library card. That’s why we’re inviting you to celebrate "5 Seasons of Library Card Love & Prize Drawings" with us.

Each season features an arboreal theme, shares ways that library cards are beneficial, and has 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 4 Prizes

New and active cardholders are eligible to enter their respective prize drawing once each quarter, plus additional entries when you refer someone to get a library card. When you sign up for or use your Lake Forest Library card June through August, you are automatically entered for a chance to win a gift card toward a trip to the movies with snacks!

 

Library Card Referrals

Through August 2025, 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 the summer prize drawing!

Complete the referral form

Library Cards if Your Address is in an Unincorporated Area

A few of you have a Lake Forest address in an unincorporated area. The school district of your home address determines eligibility for a nonresident library card. If you do not already have a Lake Forest Library card, you can check your address and get more info about nonresident cards online.

Get library card info

Flying South for Winter? Take Us With You!

It may be summer, but it's never too early to prepare for colder days and snowy times ahead. Do you live elsewhere during the winter months? Before you go, make sure your Lake Forest Library card isn't expiring while you're away. That way you can take advantage of digital resources that you can use remotely, such as the Libby app.

Consider this: If your winter home library also offers Libby, you can enter both your Lake Forest and winter home library cards into the app and flip between browsing both collections. That means more items for you to choose from!

Sign in to your library account to check your card expiration date under "My Record."

Summer Prep for the New School Year

Students at Lake Forest schools are eligible for Lake Forest Library cards, and the best part is, we come to you! Your Library Staff visit many area schools to sign up students for cards. Students use their cards to augment their school library access, and especially to make use of Lake Forest Library's extensive digital suite of research databases, eBooks and eAudiobooks, and streaming music and movies.

On various dates in August, you or the students in your life will likely see a Lake Forest Library table at Deerpath Middle School textbook pick-up, Lake Forest High School, Lake Forest Academy, and Lake Forest College Freshmen Orientation. You can also get a card by visiting the Library.

 

Coming Soon: AI Station, Your Playground for Trying Artificial Intelligence Tools

One fun way to learn the hows and the whys of AI is to play around with it. So we’re in the process of creating a dedicated AI Station at the Library to let you do just that! Try pro versions of ChatGPT (refine text and conversations), Midjourney (turn text prompts into visuals), Perplexity (deepen your research), Claude (tackle tough math or logic), and NotebookLM (summarize complex documents), plus access to popular large language models including DeepSeek R1, Phi 3, Mistral, and Gemma. For updates, stay tuned to the Library website and eNews.

Fee–Free Interlibrary Loans

Your Lake Forest Library card is powerful beyond the boundaries of Lake Forest, enabling you to borrow items from the CCS consortium of 30+ local libraries, the Find More network of 100+ Illinois libraries, and OCLC loans from libraries across the country. Even better, beginning May 1, 2025, we are no longer charging fees for OCLC loans!

Can't find an item in the catalog? Start your request online