Give a book a home, give library a boost

Read any good books lately?

Looking for something different?

Friends of the Library has an offer you cant refuse at Kalispell Center Mall this weekend.

Starting at 10 a.m. Friday, stacks and stacks of lovingly used books will go on sale for a good cause the Flathead County Library system.

Friends of the Library, a local group of book lovers and community boosters, is offering all manner of great reading from 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. that first day.

Theyll be back on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and finish it out on Sunday from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Novels and reference books and educational volumes and great literature await the lucky readers who find those gems perfectly suited to their needs and tastes.

On Friday and Saturday, you can buy by the inch stack your selections atop each other, put a yardstick to it and pay just $1 an inch.

Whatever is left on Sunday goes for $1 a sack. Bring your own sack, if you wish.

Last years sale brought in $7,000 for the library.

Over the years, the Friends of the Librarys benevolence has bought shelving for the general stacks, videos, books on tape, a newsletter, magazine subscriptions and much more that the library director cant cover in the budget.

But the Friends favorite recipient is the childrens department.

After something like two decades, the used-book sale has become a tradition.

It is the product of a years worth of book donations from a generous community and lots of work by about a dozen active members of Friends of the Library.

We usually get women who really love their community or really love books, Clare Hafferman said of her fellow club members.

But by no means is the membership restricted to women. Hank Dawson, a book lover and retired U.S. Forest Service worker, is their best book hauler.

Hafferman and Lisa Simmer were working last week in the little log cabin in Lions Park on Kalispells south end, sorting books into topical categories, laying aside those too soiled or outdated to be sold.

In the spring, and again in the fall before the November sale, club volunteers put in hundreds of hours sorting through the paperbacks and hardcovers for those in good condition, containing relevant information or great literature.

We really want to keep a neat sale, Simmer said, tossing another tattered paperback on the stack headed for the recycler.

Simmer is typical of many club members young, energetic women who juggle work, family and a commitment to give back to the community. Many are able to give time here and there to collect and sort books, others help with the sale, yet others help with community outreaches to encourage a love for literacy among moms and children in the Women, Infants and Children program.

Members can do what they are able, a lot or a little, Simmer said. We get busy at the sale, and can need extra hands just at that time.

Youths also offer plenty of help with the sale. Girl Scouts, 4-Hers, Anchor Club members and high school band musicians help load and unload boxes of books headed for the sale.

We always encourage kids helping out to take a book or two, Hafferman said.

As the self-identified oldest member of the club, she has been pitching in on the book sale since she joined 15 years ago. Now retired, she can be more flexible on her volunteered time.

Hafferman also is a former book-store worker and knows her books. She can spot the valuable donations, then asks her husband Bob to research market values on the Internet.

Those books are priced individually and grouped into the Neat, Old & Nearly New category.

For years, the club joined forces with the American Association of University Women to sponsor two book sales a year.

Today, AAUW members hold their sale in the spring to raise money for scholarships and other projects. In the fall, the Friends of the Library sale raises money for the library system.

Hafferman, Simmer and their fellow Friends of the Library feel privileged to be able to keep good books circulating and keep the public library in business.

Friends of the Library meet for an hour at noon on the third Thursday of the month in the Kalispell library basement, with a break for summer. Interested in joining? Call Hafferman at 752-1341.

Reporter Nancy Kimball can be reached at 758-4483 or by e-mail at nkimball@dailyinterlake.com