Ukulele Library Program!

I'd like to just pop in for a minute to humble-brag about my uke club's Ukulele Lending Library program! We're located in the semi-rural west-central part of Pennsylvania with club members from 5 or so different counties.

This past spring, I was fortunate enough to make an acquaintance of Louis Wu of Ohana Ukuleles who graciously donated 20 ukes to our club to kickstart our program. We just wrapped up training our 3rd county of librarians and I'm just over the moon with how well it has been received by the libraries and their patrons, not to mention the press coverage and national response

As of today, we've provided 26 ukulele kits (soprano uke, gigbag, tuner & book) to 13 libraries in 3 counties and trained roughly 20 librarians to play (the basics), maintain, and teach! We have enough kits to supply 5 more libraries, and 6 kits are already spoken for. By the end of the year, we're expecting to provide kits to at least another 14 libraries in our region.


We took inspiration specifically from the TBUS program, so thanks guys & gals for providing a template for us to work from.

This article gives a good overview of our program. If you are in a club that would like to start a program in your library system, feel free to message me - I'd be happy to share our experience developing the program

What a fantastic way to give back to the community and spread uke cheer! Congratulations on how far your program's come in such a short time. How many more counties are you planning to cover? The entire state? Beyond?

Wow, what a great idea! Congratulations on a successful kick-off of your lending program. With so many public schools cutting back on music in the classroom, this provides a great opportunity for kids (and adults) to get exposure to playing an instrument with very little investment on their part.

That is awesome! Tampa does something similar. It is such a great thing!

What a cool idea. I loved reading this!

Jookulele,
Thanks so much for giving TBUS some of the credit for this. Kudos for doing the program. It's a wonderful way to give back to the community. I hope you have as much success as we have. I taught a small (8) class Saturday, and they unanimously want to join TBUS!
Mim was very instrumental in helping us get the program up and running. We "advertise" for her at each workshop.
We'll be starting an "advanced beginner" class soon.
I'm posting your article on our FB page, I hope that's ok. The more publicity, the better, eh?

Nickie said:

Jookulele,
Thanks so much for giving TBUS some of the credit for this. Kudos for doing the program. It's a wonderful way to give back to the community. I hope you have as much success as we have. I taught a small (8) class Saturday, and they unanimously want to join TBUS!
Mim was very instrumental in helping us get the program up and running. We "advertise" for her at each workshop.
We'll be starting an "advanced beginner" class soon.
I'm posting your article on our FB page, I hope that's ok. The more publicity, the better, eh?

Click to expand...

Thanks for the support Nickie! Being involved in this program is something I am quite proud of!

Peace Train said:

What a fantastic way to give back to the community and spread uke cheer! Congratulations on how far your program's come in such a short time. How many more counties are you planning to cover? The entire state? Beyond?

Click to expand...

After the 14 libraries in the next county over, we still have a couple of hold out libraries who for one reason or another couldn't or didn't participate the first time around, so we'll circle back to them. Afterwards, I think we will focus on helping local school districts start uke programs in their elementary schools as an alternative to the recorder. We are lucky that music education is still fairly well valued and regarded in our area. In the meantime, we'll hopefully be able to provide additional kits to libraries already in our program who have the demand for more ukes as well as help other libraries and clubs get started

Nickie said:

Jookulele,
I'm posting your article on our FB page, I hope that's ok. The more publicity, the better, eh?

Click to expand...

Exactly! And all the proceeds from our spring uke festival, the Allegheny Ukulele Soiree, will benefit our programs like this!

Congrats! What a great concept. Keep up the good work!