Seed Library Summit - Feb. 14 💚

We 💚 Seeds!

Are you dreaming of opening a seed library, planning on opening, or recently opened? We’re trying something new for our 12th Seed Library Conference. This year, we will hold three separate conferences! The first one will be Saturday, February 14th (because we love seeds) and will be for communities that are planning to start, or have recently opened, seed libraries. We’ll feature three presenters, each offering a 20-minute talk followed by 10 minutes of Q&A. We’ll finish with 30 minutes in breakout rooms to connect and share ideas.

Presenters (Bios)
Aly Trombitas, Agriculture & Horticulture Educator, Cornell Cooperative Extension, NY, USA
Marie-ève Boutin, Squamish CAN, Squamish, BC, Canada
Rebecca Newburn, Founder, Seed Library Network

📹 Recorded: This event will be recorded, except for the breakout sessions.

🎟️ Registration cost (sliding scale): $10-25; No one turned away for lack of funds

🗣️🌐 Language Access: Presenters will be speaking in English. Closed captions will be enable to allow people to choose captions in their preferred language. We hope to offer breakout rooms in French and Spanish. If there are other languages present, we’d love to support you too.

Volunteer to be a Breakout Room Moderator 🤚🏽🤚🏾🤚🏿

Is your seed library open? Would you be willing to help support a conversation in one of the breakout rooms for 30 minutes? Guidelines and tips here.

Help Make Local Seeds Visible

Help make local seeds visible: Over the summer, many of you contributed interviews and time to the Local Seeds Coalition (thank you!). A priority emerged: seeds have become invisible to the public, and we need a regional labeling system combined with a coordinated awareness campaign. The campaign will fund shared icons to identify seed origins and professional outreach tools to help growers find seeds that thrive in their local climates. Read the full proposal at localseeds.org.

Double your impact: Every dollar donated this month is matched.

The Seed Library Network is one of the organizations in the Local Seed Coalition.

Calendar 📅

Sustaining a Seed Library:
Borrowing Procedures & Donations from the Community

Hosted by the American Library Association SustainRT in partnership with the Seed Library Network
Tuesday, Feb. 17 1- 2:30 PM EST

This class is helpful for anyone looking to start or enhance a seed library. It covers how to create clear lending guidelines, promote seed returns, and evaluate donated seeds. You’ll also get practical advice on community engagement and building a diverse, resilient collection. It’s full of actionable tips and simple ways to boost participation.

National Seed Swap Day, Sat. Jan. 31

Hosting a seed swap? Be sure to check out our Seed Swap Toolkit. We even have a guide to prepare new participants, table signs, and information about appropriate quantities and labeling. We also highly encourage printing the Embrace Diversity poster. Signs are customizable on Canva.

Stay Tuned!

If you’re established or want some inspiration, stay tuned for the other summits which will be in late summer or early fall focused on maintaining a seed library and relocalizing our seeds.