You may wonder where the books you so generously donate to the Friends of the Library Used Book Sale actually go?  Please know that every penny earned from selling them is invested right back into your library.  And the books we are unable to sell are donated to Better World Books, a nonprofit online book vendor where all proceeds go to charity.  They even send us the boxes and pay the postage!  What could be better than that?

Here are some examples of what the Friends of the Library has achieved so far this year.  Membership is only $10 a year per family … the best investment in town.

We conducted two successful used book sales.

Held the new Valentine’s Day event “Blind Date With A Book” which resulted in an Evy Nordley finalist award.

Purchased a new microfilm reader for the library.

Contributed funds to the Austin Page Turners event.

Sponsored the Eberhart Poetry Contest for all Austin public school students and honored each finalist with a book of poetry.

Sponsored a Literary Landmark plaque for Richard Eberhart that is on permanent display at AHS.

Funded the Summer Reading Program where six $100 gifts cards were awarded.

Donated 50 youngster’s “board” books to the library.

Donated funding for the library staff to attend a conference for further training.

Added memorial money to the Austin Area Foundation fund.

Meanwhile the library continues to serve Austin in the most stellar of ways with its current well-maintained inventory, free computer services, access to millions of pieces of digital and physical information and its always friendly and sincere customer service.

Peggy Keener, Austin