The Canby Public Library is host to a wide and diverse variety of educational, cultural, musical and interactive programming throughout the year, and every dollar of support for these activities is raised by the local nonprofit Friends of the Canby Public Library.
Their board of directors and volunteers raise more than $20,000 each year at the request of library staff, to ensure that the local library is the hub of learning, culture and personal growth it always has been and should be. In fact, the Friends board recently committed to raising the more than $22,800 requested by the library in the next fiscal year.
Perhaps the only thing more surprising than these numbers is how few people in Canby actually know about it.
To address this lack of awareness, the nonprofit is rolling out a new promotional campaign this year that will group library programming in different categories under the unified Friends brand. The general programming will be the same that longtime patrons have come to expect; all that’s changing are the names.
The “Music in the Stacks” concert series is now the Friends of the Library Concert Series, with the tagline “Where Music Meets Community.”
This change also coincides with the fact that the concerts will now coincide with First Thursday celebrations in downtown Canby, and some will no longer be “in the stacks.” During the summer months, these concerts will be held in the Wait Park gazebo. In cooler weather, they will be held in the library.
The adult craft series is now the Friends of the Library Expressions Series, with the tagline “Crafts for Grown-Ups.” Other adult programming will fall under the new name Friends of the Library Explorations Series, with the tagline “The World Comes to Canby.”
Finally, children’s programming will be branded part of the Friends of the Library Discovery Series, and will carry the tagline “Where Learning Comes Alive.”
As Friends of the Library Board Chair Joyce Ares explained, “This is not about ‘tooting our own horn,’ so to speak. We are just trying to bring light to the fact that all of these programs come from donated dollars.
“We hope that the more people who realize that, the more people there will be to support this work and help ensure we can continue to bring this fun and educational activities to Canby for many years to come.”
The series’ names, tagline and imagery were developed through the volunteer work of Friends board members, with the assistance and input of library staff. Learn more about how you can support educational and cultural programming at the Canby Public Library here.
