Friends of Library Book Sale set for Oct. 23

Oct. 20—Friends of the Library to host its annual book sale, one of the largest fundraisers for the group, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 23 at the Nancy Robert's Room at the Corsicana Public Library, 100 North 12th Street, Corsicana.

The Friends are a non-profit group that supports the Corsicana Public Library in a variety of ways, and are looking for motivated and inspired volunteers to help make its vision a reality. Those who have time and/or interest in helping support the library, the Friends may be the perfect group.

The volunteers from the Friends run The Next Chapter bookstore, located off the library's lobby.

Items for sale in the bookstore have been donated to the library and are current or popular titles that have been very gently used.

The bookstore was the brain child of Friends member Candy Fain, and is a warm cozy room, with plush carpeting and soft lighting. The name was created by member Barbara Green and speaks volumes for the mission of the bookstore.

In addition to selecting books for The Next Chapter and making sure shelves are stocked, the Friends organize the book donations received from the community. Almost daily, community members drop off books that they no longer want, or have simply run out of room to store. These books are evaluated to see if they belong in the bookstore, or if they are stored for the annual book sale.

All items have been donated to the library, but aren't right for the collection; or are duplicates of items the library already owns. In addition to donated items, there are materials that are no longer needed in the library's collection.

The Friends of the Library are also amazing friends to the library staff. They support the library by showing up and helping out whenever there is a need.

All of the funds raised by the Friends activities go directly back to the library in the form of programming funds. These help the library hire fun performers for summer events, give reading incentives for library kids during the summer and purchase supplies for fun events all throughout the year.

If you are interested in supporting your community library, the Friends would love to have new members and volunteers. There will be applications for Friends membership and volunteer forms.