If you love books, DVDs, artwork, CDs, puzzles and collector items - you might have been a customer at the Friends of the Library Book Sale October 22 -26. Maybe you were one of the 745 enthusiastic fans that entered the sale during its first 10 minutes. Or maybe you were part of the crowd of shoppers that contributed to the total of $159,506 raised during the five day sale. Though there is no total tally for attendance or items sold, it's easy to calculate that many thousands of items were sold, as items were priced from 10 cents to $4 for most everything except collector's items.
All this commerce results from the hardwork of roughly 250 volunteers that organize and conduct the semi-annual book sales. Between sales, more than 100 volunteers come in regularly to the book house to sort and price the books that are donated.
The Friends donates monies raised to community projects. The funds raised from two previous sales netted $308,500. From that, a $170,000 donation was made to the Alachua County Library District, more than $13,000 was paid for scholarships, $7,000 helped fund Snuggle-Up-And-Read projects at the Library District, and more than $11,000 funded mini-grants given to such charities as the Alachua Health Department, Meridian Behaviorial Health Care, and the Hawthorne Book Drive. This past year also saw completion of the new reading room at the Millhopper Branch Library. It was furnished mostly by a $75,000 donation from the Friends of the Library.
The popularity and success of these sales means that more books are collected each year and that there are some leftovers that need good homes. In the past the Friends of the Library has donated books to the prison system, the St. Francis House, homeless shelters, students groups at the University of Florida, local classrooms, the Levy County Library System and other charities. If you are a charitable organization or local teacher that needs books, please contact Dr. Peter Roode at folacld@bellsouth.net. Or if you want to donate books, please bring them to the Friends Bookhouse at 430-B N. Main Street.
If you volunteered or made a purchase thank you.
If you missed the fall sale, mark your calendar for the spring sale - April 21 - 25, 2012.
System status
A new library system and online catalog will debut on May 30. Here's the current status of:
- Checkouts: Continue as usual, but May 24-29 you must have your physical library card in hand to check out materials.
- Due dates: All checkouts will have a due date of June 22, except DVDs and GRU watt meters, which still have 7-day limit.
- Holds and requests: New holds and purchase requests cannot be placed until May 30, but those placed previously will continue to be processed and will carry over to the new system.
- Returns: Please "Babysit Our Books" — keep them until the new system is running smoothly (mid-June).
- Registration: Continues as usual today, but cannot be done May 24-29, as our entire system will be down.
- Interlibrary loan: No new ILL requests can be placed May 24-29.
- Digital checkouts: OverDrive checkouts and holds will work normally throughout the transition.
- My Discoveries: Will be retired with the AquaBrowser catalog on May 24. Please retrieve any saved book lists before then.
- Website: The Library District website (www.aclib.us) will be up as normal throughout the transition.
- My Account: Account info will be available through May 24. Your account will appear on the new system on May 30.
- Bill payment: All payments including PayPal are working today. No payments can be accepted May 24-29
- New catalog: Watch for its debut on May 30, with new features.
More about the transition.
More about the new online catalog.
Have any questions? Please Ask Us!
