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Popular book sale set Monday
By LINDA M. LINONIS
hubbard
It’s getting to be that time when sitting curled up with a good book is the perfect way to spend the evening.
Book buffs can browse through some 15,000 hardbacks and paperbacks and buy new and gently used books at the Friends of the Hubbard Public Library’s annual sale this week.
Bonnie Viele is sale chairman; she’s been a member of Friends for a decade and sale chairman for nine years. “About 80 percent are donations, and 20 percent are what the library has taken out of circulation,” she said of the books that will be up for grabs.
Viele said all the books and other items for the sale such as puzzles, games, DVDs and CDs pass through the “sorting room” where they are given the once- over — for content and condition. Then they’re moved into other containers — some for popular authors and others by category.
Alice Weidner, Friends president, said she is always impressed by the variety of topics that the sale offers — health, politics, humor, history, parenting, poetry, New Age, gardening and art, to name a few. And that’s not counting the many popular authors who have their following.
Friends members don’t count how many customers attend the sale, but an indication of its popularity is the preview Monday.
“They’re lined up two and three wide from the circulation desk to the meeting room,” Viele said of those who arrive much earlier than the preview opening at 5 p.m. to secure a good place in line.
This year, Friends promoted the sale in a new way by distributing book markers at the circulation desk with the sale details on the back.
Marilyn Mathews, recently retired and a Friends member for a year, helped make the book markers by recycling greeting cards.
“I got involved because I love the library and have the time and energy,” she said.
Last year, the book sale raised $3,000 for the library. And every penny counts, since state-funded libraries have seen allocations dwindle.
Sherry Ault, library director, said the 2010 budget is $615,000, which is down from a peak of $968,180 a decade ago.
Fewer funds have translated into a 45 percent reduction in staff, which resulted in cutting back hours. Ault said the irony is that library usage is at an all-time high, and funding has never been so low.
Ault said she and the Friends haven’t decided how the book sale proceeds will be used.
“We’re being cautious," she said. In the past, book sale funds have bought “extras” at the library. Since the state cutback in funding, money has been directed to such projects as carpet cleaning.
A new, 1.9-mill continuing levy was approved for the library by Hubbard voters this year but won’t take effect until 2011.
Viele said she is hoping this year’s sale does as well or better than last year.
She said Friends recently bought a small-engine- repair database for the library at a cost of $1,500. It’s available online (www.beyond-books.org) for library members.
“The library is a community service we want to maintain,” Viele said. “You can find a treasure here ... it’s so inexpensive,” she said of the book- sale offerings.
Weidner agreed and added that she wanted to share her love of books. “It’s a wonderful asset.”