Our Partners
Arizona Community Foundation
In the tradition of community foundations across the country, the Arizona Community Foundation and its statewide Affiliates harness the collective generosity of thousands of Arizonans. In 2021, the Copper Queen Library received a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation to construct a Preschool Literacy/STEAM Patio at our Annex location in San Jose.
Arizona Complete Health
Arizona Complete Health has a commitment to improving the health of the community one individual at a time through affordable and reliable health care plans. The Copper Queen Library partnered with Arizona Complete Health to sponsor 800 health and wellness bags for each Bisbee Unified School District student during the 2020 COVID-19 Pandemic. They also sponsored 100 winter homeless resource bags that were distributed at the Goar Park Lunches in Bisbee.
Arizona@Work
ARIZONA@WORK is the statewide workforce development network that helps employers of all sizes and types recruit, develop and retain the best employees for their needs. The organization has partnered with the Copper Queen Library to assist Bisbee job-seekers with workshops to foster job skills like creating a winning resume and building strong interview skills.
Arizona Humanities
The Arizona Humanities is a statewide 501(c)3 nonprofit organization and the Arizona affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Since 1973, Arizona Humanities has supported public programs that promote understanding of the human experience with cultural, educational, and nonprofit organizations across Arizona. The Copper Queen Library has long been hosting Arizona Humanities Programs for the Library's Tuesday Night Lecture Series. And in 2016, the Library participated in the Arizona Humanities beta program, Frank Talks, a new way of program interaction in the community. The Arizona Humanities also offers grant opportunities throughout the year to help foster their mission.
Arizona State Library
The Arizona State Library offers support services and free training opportunities for every public library across the state. The State Library also makes it possible for everyone with a library card to access a wide range of online databases covering subjects that include genealogy, legal, student, automotive repair, and language learning. They also offer grant opportunities each year and awarded the Copper Queen Library $5000 in 2017 to update and expand our health and wellness collection.
Artemizia Foundation
The Artemizia Foundation's goal is to create connections between community and contemporary art through stimulating conversations, programs and events designed to effect lasting, transformative impact. The Copper Queen Library partnered with Artemizia in 2021 to help promote the arts in Bisbee through art workshops, take and make kits for both kids and adults, and music concerts. Artemizia Foundation is also a contemporary, graffiti & street art museum with a commercial gallery component located in the heart of Old Bisbee.
Bisbee Arts Commission | BAC
The BAC, a commission of the City of Bisbee, is dedicated to promoting the arts and the artists in Bisbee. They organize and/or promote events, studio tours, festivals, and other events. They also offer artists mini grants and other resources that allow them to pursue their goals. The Copper Queen Library has been a repeat recipient of these grants which allow us to teach free art classes at the library using Bisbee artists.
Bisbee Bloomers
The Copper Queen Library is proud to be a partner with the Bisbee Bloomers, Bisbee's nonprofit gardening group that maintains the planters and flower pots on the second floor of the library balcony. The Bloomers also support the library with monies that go toward updating and expanding the gardening collections of both the kids and adults section, as well as supporting the Library's latest endeavor: The Bisbee Seed Library which will debut in 2018.
Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild
The Bisbee Fiber Arts Guild is a not-for profit (501©3) organization dedicated to the fiber arts. The Guild also participates in outreach activities with our greater community in order to increase awareness of the fiber arts. The CQL partnered with the Fiber Arts Guild in 2021 to make winter hats and scarves to be included in the library's Health and Wellness Caring Kits for our community's at-risk population.
Bisbee Fire Department
Every December, the CQ Library hosts Food for Fines, a program that helps collect food for the Fire Department to distribute to local families in need for the December holidays. All month long, library patrons are encouraged to pay off their overdue fines with cans of food (and other non-perishable food items). Each food item donated counts as $1.00 to their overdue fines. Patrons are also encouraged to donate food even if they don't have fines. The fire department also participates in library programs, including Preschool Story Hour and the library's Summer Reading Program.
Bisbee Foundation
The Bisbee Foundation's mission is to enhance the historical, cultural and human qualities that make Bisbee unique. With a focus area in literacy, The Bisbee Foundation has been a supportive partner of the library, especially in terms of grants for our growing literacy programs.
Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum
The Bisbee Mining and Historical Museum has been a long-standing partner with the Copper Queen Library with resource sharing and history. The Museum maintains a library of early photographs of Bisbee as well as genealogical information on early Bisbee pioneers. The Museum also maintains a display case on the third floor of the library which features relics from Bisbee's past.
Bisbee Royale | KBRP Community Radio
In 2016, the CQL and the Bisbee Royale began screening free movies every second Wednesday of the month at their location of 94 Main St, sponsored by the Friends of the Copper Queen Library. The Royale allows us to use this space for free, and offers food and drink for purchase during the film. The Library has also partnered with KBRP, which is housed in the Royale. In 2017, KBRP hosted our Summer Reading Program where participants wrote and recorded CQ Library public service announcements for the radio station. Participants were also interviewed live on-the-air by KBRP Director, Ryan Bruce. And when the CQ Meeting Room is not in use, library patrons can listen to a live stream of KBRP radio.
Bisbee Science Lab
The Mission of the Bisbee Science Exploration and Research Center, Inc. is to foster the exploration, teaching, and practice of science for the development of scientific literacy by the public and the encouragement of the scientific inquiries needed for the betterment of our lives. The library partners with the Science Lab to offer ongoing programs both at the library and at the lab.
Bisbee Unified School District (BUSD)
The CQL is proud to partner with the BUSD. In 2016 we added our library card registration form to the school's registration form to make it easier for students to obtain a library card. The library also created a page, BUSD Resources, that consolidates student library resources to make it easier for students to do school research, obtain access to practice tests, and access the online catalog for leisure reading. The library also conducts tours for school classrooms, as well as tutorials on how to use the online library resources. In the winter of 2016, the library partnered with the BUSD Construction Class and had them rebuild the Friends' Bookstore with new bookshelves and a fresh coat of paint.
Bisbee Women's Club
The Bisbee Women's Club was launched in 1900 and began as a reading club with a focus on community service. Today's Women's Club continues to carry out it's historical function of community service by making substantive contributions to support a variety of local and international causes, including the Copper Queen Library.
Boys and Girls Club of Bisbee
The CQ Library has been a partner with the Boys and Girls Club of Bisbee since 2002 when the library granted a permanent loan of over 150 children's book in the Club's library. Members of the Boys and Girls Club are also included in the Library's Summer Reading Program. And special visits to the Library by the Club occur throughout the year.
Central School Project
The Central School Project, a non-profit artists' cooperative, has always been a solid partner of the Copper Queen Library. The library participates in the CSP-sponsored MAKE Youth Arts Festival, an annual all-day festival that provides immersive arts experiences to local children and their families, all free of charge. A wide range of activities are taught by locally-based creative professionals. These include workshops in various visual arts media, writing, theater, dance, film, etc., as well as performance opportunities. The CSP also hosted our Summer Reading Program in 2017 and offered participants an inside look of what it means to be a working artist in Bisbee with tours of artists' studios and hands-on art activities inspired by the artists themselves. The Copper Queen Library also hosts CSP artists as teachers in various workshops the library presents throughout the year. Past workshops have included printmaking, embroidery, papermaking, bookbinding, and papier mache.Cochise Area Reading Council
The Cochise Area Reading Council is an affiliate of the Arizona Reading Association and consider themselves Champions of Literacy. Members of the council help foster reading skills at the Copper Queen Library by volunteering their time and passion for our Preschool Reading Hour and donating books to the Children's Library.
Cochise County Health Department
The CQ Library teamed up with the Cochise County Health Department and utilized their Cochise County Health Assessment which they completed in 2016 to write a grant to the Arizona State Library to update and expand our Health and Wellness Collection for both juveniles and adults. The grant was awarded in 2017. The County Health Department Staff are also regular presenters at the Library's Tuesday Night Lecture Series, promoting health and wellness across the spectrum.
Cochise County Library District
The Copper Queen Library and the Cochise County Library District have been partners since the District's creation in 1975. The District greatly supports the Copper Queen Library, as well as all the other libraries within Cochise County. The District Library operates the online catalog, provides a courier service to deliver and return books borrowed and requested by county patrons, provides monies for collection development, provides the platform for Ebooks and EAudiobooks (Overdrive), and offers Talking Books and Homebound services (the Minibookmobile) for residents who are not able to visit area libraries. In addition to these services, the District Library created Free Book Boxes around Cochise County in 2017 to help ease the burden of the loss of the Bookmobile. To help with this, the Copper Queen Library adopted the Free Book Box in Naco, AZ to help keep it filled with books.Coronado National Memorial | National Park Service
The Coronado National Memorial has partnered with the library to conduct educational outreach programs for children at both the main library and annex location. Their programs teach children about the historical, cultural and natural importance of the memorial.
FICAM
Festival Internacional de Cine Alamos Magico sponsors the Alamos Film Festival in Alamos, Sonora, Mexico and has partnered with the Copper Queen Library to sponsor our Borderlands Film Collection which features Mexican films and documentaries that relate to the U.S./Mexican border. The donation highlights the great diversity of Mexican cinema, and includes both contemporary and classic films that have been featured at the Festival since its first run in 2011.
Freeport McMoran
Freeport McMoran's has been a proud sponsor of the Copper Queen Library since 2016 through their Community Investment Program. The mining company has been a generous contributor to the library's Summer Reading Program, which allows Bisbee's youth a chance to explore their city through a series of educational field trips. Incentives are provided each week and have included fiction and nonfiction books, writing journals, and art kits. And in 2017 Freeport organized a driving tour of their property for 30 SRP participants, which included a journey into the Lavender Pit and a tour of their recent reclamation projects.Friends of the Bisbee Animal Shelter
Our Read to Cats literacy program is a future endeavor that the Library will partner with the Friends of the Bisbee Animal Shelter. Children in grades 1-8 who are able to read at any level will be invited to the shelter to read to the cats in their adoption room.The program will help children improve their reading skills while also helping the shelter animals by providing socialization and human interaction. Cats find the rhythmic sound of a voice very comforting and soothing. Friends of the Copper Queen Library
The Friends is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization that raises money to directly fund programs and collections of the Copper Queen Library. The Friends hosts fundraising events throughout the year, included the annual Altered Books Show and Silent Auction which is always the last Saturday in August. The Friends also run the used book store which is on the same floor as Post Office. Please click here to visit the Friends of the CQL website.
Legacy Foundation of Southeast Arizona
The Legacy Foundation's mission is to promote population health and community wellness throughout Southeast Arizona. The library has partnered with the Legacy Foundation in the past by allowing the use of our meeting room for a series of sponsored health promotion classes. In 2022, the Copper Queen Library received a grant from the Legacy Foundation to create three StoryWalks in Bisbee to help promote literacy and outdoor activity.
Library Advisory Board | LAB
An official board of the City of Bisbee, the LAB meets quarterly and advises the library on policies and procedures and is a true working partner and advocate of the Copper Queen Library.
Old Bisbee FireWise
Old Bisbee FireWise is committed to helping the residents of Old Bisbee to become safer in the face of wildfire. The key is to reduce the “fuel” (anything that burns) load around your home. In 2020, the Copper Queen Library partnered with OBF to build the FireWise Demonstration Garden at the CQL Library Annex in San Jose to highlight fire-resistant plants that residents can use in their gardens to help curb fire danger. OBF also sponsored a collection of books to showcase firewise gardening and disaster preparedness. The library also participates in OBF's Heater Replacement Program each winter which allows residents to switch out their old space heaters for a safer version for FREE!
Premier Alliances
Premier Alliances, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization which, for 60 years, has been Improving the Lives of People with Disabilities through employment opportunities, advocacy, and community partnerships. The Copper Queen Library received a video magnifier as a donation from Premier Alliances to help those patrons with low vision read or listen to their hard-to-read documents. Premier Alliances also sponsored the CQL's Special Abilities Collection for our Children's Library.
RAIN | Arizona Rural Activation and Innovation Network
RAIN is a National Science Foundation grant program working to increase informal STEM learning opportunities in rural areas of the state. Cochise County is one of four participating regions, and the Copper Queen Library is proud to be a partner and participant of this innovative organization.
SEAGO | Southeastern Arizona Governments Organizations
SEAGO has always maintained a strong presence in Bisbee and regularly works with the Copper Queen Library on providing outreach and holding office hours in the library. During Medicare Open Enrollment, a SHIP Counselor holds one on one appointments with our patrons to help them navigate their way through their plans so they can get the most benefits out of it.
Sky Island Alliance
The mission of Sky Island Alliance is to protect and restore the diversity of life and lands in the Sky Island region of the U.S. and Mexico. They are working to ensure the Sky Islands are a place where nature thrives, open space and clean water are available to all, and people are connected to the region and its innate ability to enrich our lives. In 2022, the Copper Queen Library partnered with Sky Island Alliance"s FotoFauna program that offer patrons the opportunity to participate in a citizen science project to help photograph and document wildlife in our own unique sky islands. Participants receive a camera kit with instructions on where and how to set up the camera. Kits are checked out for one month, after which, participants then submit an online monthly FotoFauna checklist of the species they observe.
StepUp Bisbee/Naco
United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona
The CQ Library teamed up with United Way in 2017 to help in our efforts to promote children's literacy. The United Way distributes funds throughout the year to help facilitate early learning programs in the area, including the CQ Library's newest endeavor: Preschool STEM Classes.
University of Arizona
Southern Arizona's great educator is also a partner of the CQ Library. The University's Department of Medicine began a program in 2016 to address Bisbee problem with the Kissing Bug, whose bite can trigger an allergic reaction and also transmit disease. The team that is researching the bug has encouraged Bisbee to become participants of the research project by sharing their stories and catching the bugs so that the UA can study them. The University partnered with the Library by providing kissing bug kits so that Bisbee participants can catch and store the bug for research. The Library collects the filled kits and drops them off at the Cochise County Health Department who then sends it on to the University's Research Team.University of Arizona Cooperative Extension
The UA's Cooperative Extension engages with people through applied research and education to improve lives, families, communities, the environment and economies in Arizona and beyond. The Copper Queen Library has partnered with the Cooperative Extension for programs for both adults and children and has been a recipient of a WaterWise Grant to install a rain catchment system at the CQ Library Annex in San Jose.