Hugging the Ames library for last year's challenge

It’s that time of year again! Well, yes, Final Four time. And SCBWI-Iowa conference time. But I’m specifically talking about the Blogger’s Library Lovin’ Challenge.

The brain-child of author Jennifer Hubbard, the challenge is a week-long celebration of libraries and giving by bloggers all over the Internet. Last year’s challenge raised over $5,000 for local libraries, plus pledges of books and other items, and this year should be even bigger.

Because libraries are important. I worked as a page during high school. I volunteered at a public library after college. I remember weekly trips during childhood, I remember waiting for the phone call telling me the book on hold had arrived, and I remember wanting to read every book in the children’s section (still working on it).

So here’s the deal: for every library lovin’ commenter on this post between now and midnight (Central Standard Time) on Friday, April 1 (no foolin’), I will donate $1.00 to the Robert W. Barlow Memorial Library in Iowa Falls, IA, up to an amount of $100.00 total. It’s simple: you comment, I cough up the money.  Talk about your favorite library, what makes it awesome, a favorite book find, a childhood memory, or even just “I love libraries.”

My pledge is “per commenter”—so if a single person leaves 50 comments, that still only counts once (although my WordPress stats will look fantastic).  But you can do more by spreading the word … please link to this post, tweet about it, mention it on Facebook, etc.  To raise money for more libraries, visit the blogs of others participating in this challenge:

http://writerjenn.livejournal.com/234087.html

Thanks in advance for spreading the awesome on behalf of libraries everywhere! I’ll see you in the comments.