Basketball and books are colliding as the Brooklyn Public Library teams up with the New York Liberty to release special-edition Liberty-themed library cards.
The cards — featuring images of the championship-winning WNBA team and its iconic mascot, Ellie the Elephant, will be available at all BPL branches starting on Monday, June 2 — but only 100,000 will be released.
Anyone who lives, works, or goes to school in New York state is eligible for a free BPL card, as long as they can prove they’re eligible with proof of address (or a report card or school ID for minors.) The cards grant access to BPL’s sprawling collection of books, vinyls, and other media as well as all kinds of programming and other resources.
Liberty-themed cards are limited to one per account, but existing BPL members can talk to a librarian to swap their old library card for a new Liberty-themed one while supplies last.
The themed library cards are just part of a summer-long partnership between the Liberty and the library. The team will support BPL’s summer reading initiatives through its Brooklyn Basketball program to help “[provide] access to books, [encourage] curiosity, and [inspire] students to find the joy in reading in every Brooklyn neighborhood.”
Ellie created a special summer reading list of books about basketball, empowerment, community, friendship, and women in sports — with selections from picture book “You Hold Me Up” to young adult graphic novel “Wash Day Diaries” and the new nonfiction book “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.”
“Brooklyn Public Library is thrilled to partner with the 2024 WNBA Champions New York Liberty, their mascot Ellie the Elephant, and Brooklyn Basketball,” said a BPL spokesperson, in a statement. “Together, we share a passion for this great borough and look forward to welcoming new card holders to the library this summer to read and learn and discover.”
BPL and the Liberty will celebrate their collaboration — and Ellie’s birthday — at the June 1 Liberty game at Barclays Center.
The BPL bookmobile will park outside the arena so existing BPL cardholders can check out books, and there will be “book-themed activations” all around the arena — including a photobooth and Ellie-themed bookmarks with a QR code that leads to the literary elephant’s summer reading list.
On June 11, BPL will honor the New York Liberty with its Brooklyn Public Library Gala Award — which will be presented by author Jacqueline Woodson to Liberty CEO Keia Clarke — to honor the team’s “ongoing commitment to championing the community and for the team’s support of summer programming.”
Over the past few years, city budget cuts have left BPL scrambling to stay afloat. In 2023, the library was forced to end seven-day service due to lack of funding — though the money was eventually restored — and BPL’s director of community engagement recently told Brooklyn Paper it’s “very hard to offer new programs or new initiatives” without outside funding or partnerships.
For Fiscal Year 2026, BPL, the New York Public Library, and the Queens Public Library requested a joint $45 million from the city budget, $12.4 million of which would be earmarked for BPL.
Brooklyn Basketball, a collaboration between the New York Nets and the Liberty, usually focuses on free basketball camps and clinics, but the Liberty also run various social responsibility programs in support of young athletes, women, the LGBTQ+ community, and underserved New Yorkers.
