Regular Library Members

Annual dues in effect until 2008 dues year are as follows:

Regular members of the ULC have access to research that addresses issues affecting urban libraries, Committies and Strategy Groups, and a wide variety of networking opportunities available online and at ULC events. For a taste of what ULC has offered in the past, please view our Deliverables from 2000-2005. Also available to members is an expanded Web site that serves as a nexus for our member community to meet through our Discussion Group ListServs, awards, Fast Fact surveys and more.

For more than 30 years, the Urban Libraries Council (ULC) has worked to strengthen public libraries as an essential part of urban life. As a membership organization of North America 's premier public library systems and corporations that serve them, the ULC serves as a forum for sharing best practices resulting from targeted research, education and forecasting. ULC programs are acclaimed for inspiring new organizational models that invigorate urban libraries and enrich the communities they serve. Currently, ULC focuses on programs and initiatives that: position libraries as assets in their communities; recognize and support the unique roles played by public libraries in the lives of youth; provide leadership training opportunities for library directors, trustees, senior staff, and corporate officers; and help members to understand the forces and factors that will affect their libraries in the future.

With input from our members, the Executive Board has outlined an aggressive agenda in three strategic directions for ULC:

• Focusing attention on the role of the public library in the urban community – supporting the development of library leaders who work effectively on urban community agendas, promoting civic participation and the library as active civic space, encouraging and supporting partnerships and effective services with urban constituencies.

• Strengthening the library industry for the 21st Century – developing new leaders who are effective in dynamic public environments, understanding the economic scope and buying power of the public library industry, exploring and promoting new organizational models, and developing ways to measure how urban public libraries are contributing public value.

• Supporting and strengthening our members – growing strong collegial networks, spreading best practices, developing unique professional development opportunities, and facilitating the exchange of ideas, resources, and information.

ULC will move in these new strategic directions by improving the tools our members tell us are most helpful - peer-to-peer networks, access to outside experts, leading-edge research and publications, conferences and conversations, training, leadership, and work with national partners. Further, we have developed new tools, such as this robust website with member-only features, and a searchable database for best practices with expanded links to interesting city initiatives. We will continue to position ULC as an effective voice for public libraries in cities, telling our stories, promoting our assets, and addressing our common issues of concern.

All library members of ULC receive the following:

• A free subscription to the ULC Exchange
• one free copy of all of our Publications
• Invitations to all ULC Events
• The access to the ULC Members-Only website and Discussion Group ListServs
• The eligibility to be nominiated to the ULC Executive Board, Committees and Strategy Groups