On March 17th, the American Library Association released the following statement:

"The ALA Executive Board unequivocally stands in support of the safety and well-being of library workers and the communities we serve," stated the board. "To protect library workers and their communities from exposure to COVID-19 in these unprecedented times, we strongly recommend that academic, public and school library leaders and their trustees and governing bodies evaluate closing libraries to the public and only reopening when guidance from public health officials indicates the risk from COVID-19 has significantly subsided."

Realizing the economic impact library closures would have on individual library workers, the EveryLibrary Institute developed the Help a Library Worker Out fund to support library workers, librarians, and staff who are facing unexpected financial difficulties because of the Coronavirus economic slowdown. As a national library 501c3 non-profit organization, the EveryLibrary Institute is in a unique position to quickly bring together donors from across the country and make grants to library workers who are part of our library family.

With our April grant, our trustees specifically wanted to provide funding that directly supported library workers who have lost wages because of a Coronavirus-related layoff. The Awesome Libraries Chapter is excited to provide the initial funding for the "Help a Library Worker Out" campaign, and we look forward to signal boosting this initiative across our networks.

Please join us in supporting library workers during this unprecedented time.