Get a Library Card

Who Can Get a Library Card?
The Center Library is available to educators in Illinois. The Center Library serves teachers, educators, professionals or staff affiliated with educational institutions, child-focused programs, or adult and family learning programs in Illinois. Eligible educators include:

• early childhood professionals working with Block Grant/Preschool for All programs
• ESL, ELL, and bilingual educators statewide (except Chicago Public Schools)
• adult basic education and adult ESL educators in northern Illinois

If you are not eligible to receive a library card, you may still borrow items from our library via interlibrary loan at your local public library.

You may register for a library card in person, by mail, or online.

Express Sign-up for a Library Card
If you have registered for a workshop, course, conference or other event of The Center's (via the Illinois Resource Center, The Adult Learning Resource Center, or IRC:Early Childhood Professional Development) within the last 2 years, you may register online to receive a library card:

• Go to thecntr.org and log in or create a new account. If you have registered online for workshops or courses with us before, use the login that you created then. It is not the log in that you use for the library catalog or this library website.
• Click on a project logo -- Adult Learning Resource Center, Illinois Resource Center, or IRC:Early Childhood; choose the project whose course or workshop you have taken, update your profile if needed, and continue on to the registration page.
• Click 'Register for a Library card' and follow the on-screen instructions.

You will receive a library card in the mail within 2 weeks, most likely much sooner.