Communities thrive when their members understand how money works, know who they can talk to about specific financial topics, and have access to quality, consumer-friendly learning materials.
ALA, in partnership with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, has released a collection of free online games to teach children basic financial skills related to earning, saving and spending money.
The four interactive games — part of a series called Thinking Money for Kids and available at tm4k.ala.org — are designed for children ages 7 to 11 but are appropriate for other ages as well.
Navigating the world of personal finance and financial literacy can be tricky when searching for information to share. As information professionals, we are always looking for timely and reliable resources to help address the needs of our communities.
You may think money is too personal a topic for the library … well, we hope to convince you otherwise. Money matters affect every person you know. Education about financial concepts and tools for money management are important to informed decision-making and are keys to independent living.
Michigan State University's Gast Business Library partners with the College of Social Science’s Go for the Green financial literacy team to cosponsor MSU’s participation in Money Smart Week, a national program sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. As part of this weeklong event, the Go for the Green team hires a financial literacy-focused author to come to campus and speak with students about managing their money.
COVID-19 isn't just a health crisis; for many Americans, the pandemic has caused economic turmoil as well. As members of ALA's Financial Literacy Interest Group, we know the importance of financial capability skills, and this was a moment for us to step up.
So facing statewide "shelter at home" orders this spring, public and academic libraries made a quick shift to online financial literacy programming. Here’s what we learned along the way.
Money makes the world go 'round; to be comfortable, we have to make it, save it and seriously consider how we spend it. Of course, successfully managing your money matters is incredibly difficult without basic financial literacy.
ALA, in partnership with the FINRA Investor Education Foundation, invites public libraries to apply to be part of a national tour of the traveling exhibition Thinking Money for Kids.
ALA is seeking contributing authors who would like to author projects in an upcoming book "Financial Literacy at the Library" (working title), edited by Kathy Rosa and Melanie Welch, to be published by ALA Editions.
This book on personal finance and financial literacy in libraries will include a robust section of program models featuring effective financial literacy-themed programs and activities. We hope for it to be an all-in-one recipe book for inspiring and creating innovative financial literacy programming that will be chock-full of practical project ideas for libraries.
Lakewood has historically been a very welcoming place for new Americans. Our area recently saw an influx of new residents from Southeast Asia, so we decided to host a financial literacy class for Nepali and Burmese-speaking people.
We regularly work with a group called Asian Services in Action (ASIA Inc.), so we decided to reach out to them since they had the expertise needed for the workshops. We held the program at our Madison branch, which is located in a neighborhood where a lot of immigrants settle.
This program was offered as part of Thinking Money, a traveling exhibit about financial literacy offered by the ALA Public Programs Office and the FINRA Foundation.