For more than 50 years, the Boulder Library Foundation has helped ensure that Boulder’s public libraries remain vibrant, welcoming spaces for learning, creativity, and community connection. Since its founding, the organization has raised and contributed more than $11 million to support the Boulder Public Library system — helping to fund everything from expanded facilities and innovative programming to makerspaces and early literacy initiatives.
Today, the Boulder Library Foundation is entering an exciting new era of growth alongside the library system itself.
In 2022, Boulder voters approved the creation of a library district, establishing a dedicated funding stream for local libraries and transforming what Chris Barge, CEO, describes as a “game changing” moment for the community. The transition from a municipally funded library system to a district model has already allowed the library to expand from four branches to six, including the addition of the NoBo branch and the new Gunbarrel location.
“For many years, the library was forced to compete with every other city priority for funding,” Barge explained. “The district model allows the library to grow and operate at the level this community expects and deserves.”
The Foundation played an important advocacy role in helping champion the initiative, continuing a long tradition of supporting the library through pivotal moments in its history.
Barge himself brings decades of community leadership experience to the role. Before joining the Boulder Library Foundation as its first Executive Director, he spent years as a journalist with the Daily Camera and Rocky Mountain News before transitioning into nonprofit leadership at the Community Foundation Boulder County. His background in storytelling, fundraising, and community engagement has helped shape the Foundation’s growing impact.
One of the organization’s newest initiatives is BoulderWrites, a two-year pilot program fully funded by the Foundation. The writing center expands on the library’s longstanding BoulderReads literacy program by offering support for both functional and creative writing. Participants can receive help with resumes, job applications, memoir writing, fiction, and more through one-on-one coaching sessions and workshops.
The program has already received an enthusiastic response from the community.
“Whoever discovers it doesn’t stop at one session,” Barge shared. “People come back again and again.”
The Foundation is also funding a new museum-quality interactive early learning exhibit at the Main Library. Designed for children ages 0–5, the custom installation will complement the library’s story times and family programming while creating an engaging learning environment for Boulder’s youngest residents.
Beyond books, the library system itself continues to evolve into a dynamic community hub. Recent updates to the Main Library include a redesigned upstairs space with expanded seating, additional natural light, collaborative workspaces, and enhanced public amenities. The Boulder Library Foundation has also helped fund makerspaces that give community members access to creative tools, technology, and hands-on learning opportunities.
“I like to say the library’s slogan could be, ‘And we’ve got books too,’” Barge joked. “Libraries today are so much more than books.”
Community engagement remains at the heart of the Foundation’s work. More than 600 volunteers support library programs and services across the system, contributing everything from literacy tutoring and homebound delivery services to organizing book sales and mentoring writers.
The Boulder Library Foundation also continues to expand its public programming and events. This fall, it will host its annual gala on September 17, featuring New York Times best-selling author Virginia Evans (“The Correspondent”), stories of lives forever changed by library programming, and a paddle raise. Additional author events this year will feature acclaimed writers including Kate DiCamillo, Pam Houston, and Stephen Graham Jones in partnership with KGNU’s Radio Book Club and the Boulder Book Store.
As the library system grows, so does the Foundation’s ambition. The organization is now on track to generate more than $1 million annually in philanthropic support for Boulder’s libraries.
“I encourage people to think about how much you value a strong public library and to think about making the library foundation one of your philanthropic priorities. Once you give, you’ll start to understand more about what the library has to offer,” shared Barge.
Libraries are spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds can gather, learn, create, and feel connected.
“This community wants to live in a place with a world-class library,” Barge said. “And the more people engage with what the library offers, the more they realize it’s about far more than books. It’s one of the most important community spaces we have.”
To learn more about the Boulder Library Foundation, volunteer opportunities, or upcoming events, visit boulderlibraryfoundation.org
