The Library celebrates National Library Week from April 6-12. This annual event created by the American Library Association highlights “the valuable role libraries, librarians, and library workers play in transforming lives and strengthening our communities.”

Deputy Director for Library Services Joel Jones stresses the importance of Library branches rooted in neighborhoods, and serving “as catalysts for community connection.”

“They allow residents to connect to vital resources that help educate, inform, and enrich their lives,” Jones says. “They also serve as a place where neighborhood residents can connect with each other to build friendships and community.”

This year during National Library Week, the Library hopes to do more community building, taking its cue from a Hallmark project.

In honor of the Library’s 150^th anniversary last year, Hallmark Cards, Inc. asked the public to share how and why the Library is so important to them.

After attending the first annual Heartland Book Festival in 2023, Senior Illustrator Samantha Lewis reached out to the Library and pulled together a collaborative creative team.

“We just started thinking about a way to not just say ‘thank you,’ but also call out some of the things that we know librarians do for the community that people don’t think about all at once,” Lewis says.

At the 2024 Heartland Book Festival, Lewis asked patrons to write a note of thanks, to consider what they love about the Library, or how the Library brings them joy or makes them feel. Then she hosted a workshop at Hallmark with other illustrators and lettering artists, assembling a collage installation of this Library love.

“The Library really is a place where people can go and feel calm and quiet and just welcome,” Lewis says. “I think there’s a lot of notes on there that kind of echo that.”

During this year’s National Library Week, Library staffers launch a similar initiative both inside each branch and outside Library walls – even along the streetcar line – offering patrons an opportunity to share their own library stories.

The Library’s Mobile Services department will also ask patrons to share their favorite part about the Bookmobile, a customized Library on wheels. Staffers will hand out canvas bags, seeds from the Seed Library at Ruiz Branch, as well as soil pods for patrons to start their own plants.

Here are the highlights of the week:

• Monday, April 7: Right to Read Day, a day for readers, advocates, and library lovers to take action to protect, defend, and celebrate the right to read. The American Library Association (ALA) kicks off National Library Week with the release of its State of America's Libraries Report, including the list of Top Ten Most Challenged Books of 2023.
• Tuesday, April 8: National Library Workers Day, a day for library staff, users, administrators, and Friends groups to recognize the valuable contributions made by all library workers.
• Wednesday, April 9: National Library Outreach Day (formerly National Bookmobile Day), a day to celebrate library outreach and the dedicated library professionals who are meeting their patrons where they are.
• Thursday, April 10: Take Action for Libraries Day, a day to rally advocates to support libraries.

If you’d like to support the Kansas City Public Library, here’s how to donate.