Fight for the First and the National Library Alliance Release One Year Impact Report

From an EveryLibrary Institute Blog Post:

We are celebrating an important milestone: The one-year anniversary of Fight for The First, the only online digital advocacy platform that provides tools to local communities who want to take action against book bans in public libraries and school libraries around the United States.

Supported by generous donations from the author Nora Roberts and the Nora Roberts Family Foundation, the Long Ridge Action Fund, several independent family foundations, and hundreds of individual donors, Fight for the First and the National Library Alliance have become an indispensable ally in the fight against censorship in school libraries and public libraries. Over the last 12 months, 88 local Library Alliances and Education Coalitions have used the pro-bono tools and benefitted from direct support and advice from the EveryLibrary Institute (501c3) and EveryLibrary (501c4) in their fights to restore the right to read and oppose unconstitutional censorship.

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The Fight for the First site makes launching a local Library Alliance or Education Coalition around a local censorship problem very easy. Through the platform, groups are able to get together to discuss policies, create targeted calls to action, engage and advertise on social media, encourage attendance at meetings, and host rallies. The tools and resources on Fight for the First for National Library Alliance groups are unique in the library advocacy space. While the site includes toolkits and policy examples, it is best used to support and facilitate direct actions to restore the right to read and the rule of law in public libraries and school libraries.

Since it was created one year ago, the Fight for the First platform has facilitated:

• 64,164 unique members joined
• 88 petitions created
• 73,352 signatures collected
• 214 direct actions like emails and rallies

“Fight for the First is a sophisticated digital tool that empowers local and statewide communities to defend free access to information,” emphasizes Patrick Sweeney, Deputy Director at EveryLibrary Institute and Political Director at EveryLibrary.

Learn More, Read the Complete Report (about 1660 words)

Filed under: Libraries, National Libraries, News, Public Libraries, School Libraries