Celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month by signing up for an Oxford Memorial Library card and entering their bookmark contest. The contest is open to all ages, and designs can be submitted now through September 30. (Photo from the Oxford Memorial Library and Youth Services Facebook page)

OXFORD — The Oxford Memorial Library, located at 8 Fort Hill Park in Oxford, is celebrating Library Card Sign-Up Month with a bookmark making contest.

The America Library Association (ALA) partnered with the National Commission on Libraries and Information Science (NCLIS) to start Library Card Sign-Up Month in 1987, in response to then Secretary of Education William Bennett, who said, “Let’s have a campaign … Every child should obtain a library card and use it.”

Now, each September, libraries across the nation celebrate Library Card Sign-Up Month and encourage individuals of all ages to sign up for a library card.

The Oxford Memorial Library is doing so this year by hosting a contest for Oxford Library card holders to design their own bookmark. The contest is broken into three age groups: kids ages 0 to 11, youth ages 12 to 17, and adults ages 18 and older. One winner will be selected from each category, as well as a "People's Choice" winner.

"There will be a winner from each age category, then [we're] going to make up copies and laminate them, and they’ll be here for patrons to take," said Oxford Memorial Library Director Nancy Wilcox.

Forms for the contest are available at the Oxford Memorial Library circulation desk, at OxfordMemorialLibrary.org, and on the Oxford Memorial Library and Youth Services Facebook page.