Although he’s been dethroned as everyone’s favorite children’s book & tv character by the likes of Paw Patrol and PJ Masks, few characters hold the same place in a librarian’s heart as Arthur Read, Marc Brown’s lovable aardvark. In one of the single greatest musical moments of 90s television, Arthur and his friends from Elmwood City stage a huge musical number about their love of their library cards, with the repeating line of “Having fun isn’t hard when you’ve got a library card!” (If you haven’t seen it in a while and want to revisit it, you can click here to watch it on YouTube!)

UDPL echoes Arthur’s sentiment. Having a library card opens doors and opportunities to great items, resources, and services, all of them free of charge. Whether it’s our collection of museum passes or our online digital resources that allow you to download or stream books, audio, and video on your phone or tablet, your library card gives you access to more than just books.

Esther, the granddaughter of UDPL’s circulation manger Judy Fraser, is so excited about our new cards that she couldn’t wait to share the design with you!

Carrying a library card  will be even more important in the new library at 520 Virginia Drive. Your library card will allow you to reserve time in one of our new public meeting rooms and to use our new self-check machines to quickly check out your items.

Certain services will only be available by scanning your library card barcode. But if you don’t want to add one more card to your walled or your key ring, we recommend using a smartphone or able app like CardStar or Stocard. These apps, available on Apple or Android devices, let you scan all your store and loyalty cards to one place. All of UDPL’s self-check machines are set up to work with these apps. (If you every have problems scanning them anywhere, not just at the library, try brightening your device’s screen. The scanner can’t read digital barcodes unless the screen is bright enough for them to see them!)

Since your library card is going to become even more valuable and important in our new location we’ve created new cards with our new library logo! Shortly we’ll be inviting the community to stop in and upgrade their old library cards to one of the new ones. If you don’t want to upgrade, that’s okay too! Your existing library card will continue to work!

If you have any questions about library cards or what resources and services your card can get you, please feel free to ask at our front desk the next time you visit us.