Friends of the Library

For as much time as I spend volunteering hours for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library, I certainly haven't spent much time talking about it in this blog. This is partly to correct that.

No matter where you live (in the USA at least), you probably don't live far from a public library. And the chances are pretty good that there is a non-profit agency associated with that library called the Friends of the _____________ Library (insert the name of your library). That's how widespread the organization is. Originally, the Friends had two purposes: 1) find homes for all the books that the library has to dispose of regularly; and 2) raise money to help support the library. Many, if not most, Friends organizations have combined these two purposes and run book sales throughout the year. Some have annual or quarterly sales that tend to be really big events while others might just have a rack of books in the library foyer that is stocked and for sale every day the library is open. And the books for sale are no longer just what the library has discarded. People are constantly bringing in boxes and boxes of discarded books for the Friends to sell.

Larger cities might have a Friends organization for each library or they might have a more complex organization like we have in Sacramento where there is a System Friends which directs and coordinates 28 Branch Friends. As the System Friends we have an annual budget of around $100,000 and assets of $1.1 million. The Branch Friends add about $300,000 to the annual budget and $0.5 million to the assets. As you can see, there is serious money involved here.

Of course, it's not all about the money either. People involved with the Friends also tend to volunteer for the library, providing hours and hours of valuable service. I've enjoyed my service as treasurer for the System Friends as well as my time volunteering at the Carmichael branch library.