Library Aid Map

The Common School Fund was established by Wisconsin's founders in Article 10 of the State Constitution as a permanent school trust fund. By investing in community projects throughout the state through the State Trust Fund Loan Program, the Board of Commissioners of Public Lands generates earnings for the Common School Fund that are distributed annually to public school libraries. These monies are the sole source of state funding for public school libraries. For many school districts this is the only money available to them for library materials including books, newspapers and periodicals, web-based resources, and computer hardware and software.

View the Library Aid Distributions for the last 15 fiscal years.

The initial view of the map shows the state of Wisconsin and parts of surrounding states. A base map with different colors for large natural areas and bodies of water fills the display. The further the display zooms in, the more details show up on the base map as it covers a smaller and smaller area. Blue shapes with red outlines overlaying the base map indicate school district areas. School district areas are filled with different shades of blue. Darker shades of blue are meant to indicate a relatively higher amount of money distributed by BCPL to an individual school district.

Clicking or tapping on a location highlights a school district area on the map in cyan, or light blue. It also pops up an information box overlaying the map. Using the mouse or tab, space, and arrow keys, information about selected school districts can be selected and displayed. Paging through different selection results also changes the highlighted area on the map to reflect the school district that is selected in the box. The information in the pop up corresponds to the selected location displayed on the map. The total dollar amount distributed from the Common School Fund to the highlighted school district over the last 10 years is summarized at the top of the information box. Ten individual years' aid distributions are listed below.

A small arrow is visible on the left border of the map. Activating that arrow slides out a panel with more details about the map.