book sale

The Friends book sale netted about $5100 for their efforts. A couple of observations came to me from what I saw there. Some things never change.  I saw many of the same folks in the 3 hours I was 'around' the sale. The Friends are getting old and we don't have new members that are willing to step up and do the heavy lifting. That is not good.

Traditional sized paperbacks are on their way out. Yes, we still had plenty of them to sell, but I swear they are the same books we've sold for the past 5 years. We had 20 boxes in storage of the trade sized books. This is a change and seems to indicate that those books are eventually going to dominate our donations.  I actually mentioned in an email to the president that she may want to encourage the current store managers that it is time to rethink the store layout. They devote one book shelf 'run' to the trade sized and the rest of the wall to the standard size. AND they have been begging for the smaller paperbacks in every email they send out.

Stop begging and rework the shelving to fit what you're being given in donations. Double the size of the space for the trade sized books.  This isn't hard, people.

I have yet to hear back from her. I may have overstepped my bounds, even though I wasn't as blunt as I was just now. Oh well.

As I did the original store layout 7 years ago, I guess I feel I have a pretty important opinion on the matter.

The Friends also did give a donation to the Town in order for the work to begin on the library expansion. The first part of the plan is to get a plan in place. So, 25K will be matched from Town funds and that whole process will begin.

Always interesting at the library!

friends of the library annual report

As I've done for the past four years, I compiled some basic stats on what the Friends accomplished in 2011 and used MS Publisher to create a spiffy looking document for the group. Hubby printed copies at his office and the current president now has them to hand out for tomorrow.

I don't mind doing this task, it is rather interesting to see what we've done over the past year and the cumulative results since we started tracking this information.

While the Library does a nice job of recognizing the Friends, seeing those numbers in one document, brings smiles and usually lots of applause at the February meeting.

I won't be there tomorrow, so I will have to hear second hand how the report is received by the group. I gave the president extra copies to provide the Contemporary Club. That was the group who first started a library in our town over 50 years ago.

Not sure if I want to continue with this task or not, as I continue to scale back my involvement, but it has been a rewarding one. Always fun when you can show folks just what their countless hours of time and energy created.

the board

So......years ago the Friends had a very able and dynamic representative on our Town Library Board. However, after many years of dedicated service as a Friends officer and a Library Board member, this lovely lady decided to retire.

And we went for almost 3 years without representation on this governing body.

We will now have a voice: mine.

Yep, I applied and was appointed to the Town's Library Board.  This could be a case of out of the frying pan and into the fire......but, I don't think it will be.  Although my first order of business is going to GUILT the other board members into joining the Friends. Not a single one is a member and I seriously doubt they even know what we do each year: like donate thousands of hours and thousands of dollars.

I'm on a mission. Again.  Life is GOOD!

friends of the library

When I left the Library's staff almost 5 years ago, the president of the Friends grabbed me and set me to work. I've been working for them ever since. First up was to create from scratch our used bookstore and then to manage it for two years. Then I was elected president of the group.

Those four years flew by. The election of the officers for the 2012-2013 term is today. It is now time to downsize my involvement and pass the reins off to some new folks. I will continue to handle their marketing efforts, submit a story or two to the newspapers and take care of their monthly emailed newsletter. All work I can do from the comfort of my kitchen in my spare time.

Going back into the paid workforce when I did was not in our original plan, but several things necessitated an early entry into the world of paychecks. My new employer was supportive of my wish to finish out my term and allowed me to preside over the meetings until my term ended. I'm so grateful for that.

But, now things are winding down and I'm wrapping up a variety of loose ends. If you have a library in your town and you have a Friends group, by all means, get involved in whatever capacity you can manage. Library budgets are woefully underfunded and the Friends groups around the country are often the ones who pick up the slack when it comes to money for materials and programs.

It has been a joy to be as involved as I've been with our group. I've made some wonderful friends while volunteering in a rewarding way. I've learned a lot about myself and about leading such a diverse group of people.

If I could rewind the clock, I'd do it all over again.

book club

Our Friends group agreed to fund the book club in a bag program again in memory of my friend, Anne B. I was quite happy about that and had already compiled  a list of possible titles for the book club group to consider.  They meet today, and I'm going to try and attend so we can get that all ironed out and begin the whole process of ordering the materials and setting up the bags for 2012.

I also need to work a bit on some publicity for the group and on the guideline document I'm creating for the next president. It is way past the time when the how and why of what we do is written down.

Looks like I will have a busy Saturday!

Enjoy your day and the weekend ahead.

library stuff

“Google can bring you back 100,000 answers, a librarian can bring you back the right one.”—Neil Gaiman




And our library is about to become even more user friendly as a new cataloging system is going to be installed in just a few short days. I haven't looked up any details on "Polaris", but from what I've heard, it sounds so much better than the system we currently have.


In other library news, my executive board will be going out to dinner next week to say farewell to one of our own. The current store manager is moving out of state in the next two weeks. She is a very funny lady and a great conversationalist. She will be missed. But, the good news is that if the oldest decides to attend the university we are visiting this week, this Friend will be close by and can keep 'tabs' on her or at least be on call in case of an emergency.  They actually have a pretty funny relationship as this Friend is the one who named my oldest The Blonde Star after the Blonde-OnStar joke.


Okay, off to work I go!

the book club in a bag

The library is ready to roll out the new program named in honor of my friend, Anne. The book club in a bag concept has been a huge hit with her family and I received kind notes from her daughters and one granddaughter expressing how much they think she would have loved this project.  I also received a note from a former library board president who felt that it was the perfect way to honor Anne's contributions to the Friends and the community.

I hope the community takes advantage of this new service. I've sent press releases out with a photo and caption. I've facebooked it for the past week. I have a few more ideas on how to spread the word, but some of the promotion needs to come from the library itself. I'm anxious to see what sort of display the head of circulation puts together.

As I read book reviews and see tidbits about novels other avid readers are enjoying, I've even been jotting down names for next year's bags. We've already received donations to fund the continuation of the program. That is very exciting.

The big book sale is next week. It seems that our fears of not having enough books were misplaced, as we are almost back to where we were for the fall sale in regards to our inventory. That is good. I'm eager to see how our new sorting and boxing system impacts setting up the hardback fiction tables. I hope our plan helps what is usually a chaotic and mind-numbing 6 hours of work. We've presorted the books as we packed them and they should be in boxes that roughly match how the books are allocated on the tables. The concept worked for nonfiction and helped reduce that set up time from 2 days to 1 day. I'm hoping to have a similar effect in the fiction room.

We shall see on next Wednesday. In the meantime, I'm off to promote my latest 'baby' in honor of my friend.

Just what does a Friends of the Library president do?

When I took on the presidency for the Friends, I was handed a bag full of files and given a hug. I think the next president might need a little more than that. I've started the process of putting together a manual to exactly outline what the president does and when. The manual will also contain information on what the other officers do, as well as what the book sale and book store managers duties are.

At some point in the future, I will be able to hand off this manual along with a jump drive containing pertinent files and walk away with a very clean conscience. I will have provided a starting point for the next president and that board of officers.

I began to make a list yesterday and started to see a format for the manual take shape. This is not going to be a day long project. It most likely will take me a week as I need to provide examples as well as guidelines and instructions for multiple endeavors. I have the time right now and I hope to have the project completed by the middle of next week.