What if you needed 22 library cards, instead of one?

The Jefferson County Library Cooperative (JCLC) is a group of 22 individual municipal Jefferson County libraries that banded together thirty-three years ago to create the "one county - one library card" system. Citizens of all ages use one library card countywide and have access to all the resources of all the libraries in the county, plus an online catalog, the Internet, numerous databases and the Books-By-Mail program. Our countywide delivery system transports materials throughout the county to satisfy users’ requests and returns them to the owning library for the borrower’s convenience. JCLC is the non-profit organization that manages the system-wide services—the glue that links us together.

After 33 years of funding, the Jefferson County Library Cooperative was recently eliminated from the Jefferson County budget. Local library buildings, staff, and operations are funded at the local level. But JCLC, a non-profit organization, provides all 40 Jefferson County city public libraries—including your local library—with essential services like internet access, book and DVD delivery between libraries, one centralized catalog and one centralized library card, access to free databases like Heritage Quest for genealogy and business resource Reference USA.

Our members include the following public libraries: Adamsville, Bessemer, Birmingham Public Library System (19 branches), Botanical Gardens, Clay, Fairfield, Fultondale, Gardendale, Graysville, Homewood, Hoover, Hueytown, Irondale, Leeds, Midfield, Mountain Brook, Pinson, Pleasant Grove, Tarrant, Trussville, Vestavia Hills, and Warrior.

On behalf of the 22 directors of our member libraries, we greatly appreciate that over the past thirty-three years you have been such steady, staunch supporters of JCLC and all of our public libraries. Your tax dollars, along with funding from the local municipalities, the Alabama Public Library Service, and tax deductible public donations, aid in making us "one" cooperative. We take great pride in providing world class library service to citizens of all ages throughout Jefferson County.

One day. One massive opportunity to support Alabama nonprofits!

February 2nd is your opportunity to join thousands of Alabamians in being part of a history making event that aims to raise millions of dollars for hundreds of Alabama nonprofits in just 24 hours. Inspired by other Gives Days in the nation, Alabama Gives Day provides nonprofits an opportunity to showcase the impact of the incredible work they do that helps improve the quality of life for everyone in our state.

Tell your friends and family that libraries are essential components of communities — worth fighting for and worth funding. ~Re-posted from the Alabama Gives website JCLC page