The libraries that need this most usually have no budget line for software. A sponsored place is the full product, at no cost to the library, paid for by a funder who is credited and nothing more.
A discount says the price wasn't real. A sponsored place says the price is real and somebody paid it on your behalf — which is also the only version a funder can put in a budget.
Tell us who you serve and why the budget isn't there. There is no form to labour over and no matched funding to find first.
A foundation, a trust, a company or an individual can cover a named set of libraries — a hospital's units, a district's schools, a programme's field sites.
This is the part that matters, so it's written down rather than assumed. A library that can be leaned on by its funder is not a library.
Sponsors cannot add, remove, promote or veto a title. The catalog is the library's, entirely.
Never individual reading, never a reader list, never a name. Aggregate counts only.
No sponsored shelves, no promoted titles, no advertising anywhere in the product.
If sponsorship ends, the library keeps its catalog and moves to a paid or free plan. Nothing is withdrawn.
Not the funder. We match funding to applications, so a funder never picks a library it has a relationship with.
Publicly, on this site, so the arrangement is visible rather than private.
Both sides can stop. A library that outgrows the need moves to a paid plan.
Sponsorship is charged at plan price. There is no premium for it being funded.
A library that needs a place, or a funder who wants to cover some. Both start with the same conversation.