Friends Bookstore volunteers

The Friends’ Bookstore is run entirely by volunteers.  Last year the bookstore donated $55,000 to the library; this year their goal is $60,000. These funds benefit the library in a variety of ways in which we’ll talk about in a later post. Today I want to focus on the volunteers who make this happen.
As you may or may not know, most of the books that go to the bookstore are donated by generous community members. Without these donations there would be no bookstore and a smaller collection of materials in the Library, since the Library looks at all donations first.
Sorters  look over each donated book and sort them in groups such as: library collection, online sales, auditorium sales, Bookstore, etc.
Bookstore cashiers stock shelves, keep the store tidy, interact with customers, organize books in the back room so the books are ready to go out on the shelves, keep the discard’s cart full, and take care of Paige Turner.
Delivery Drivers – Friends Bookstore volunteers deliver books to Channel One, where clients may pick up free children’s books, or adult non-fiction and fiction. They deliver books to places in town such as the Gift of Life Transplant House so those who are here waiting for treatment at Mayo Clinic have adequate reading materials.
Operation Paperback – Friends gather requests from American soldiers stationed  in Afghanistan, Iraq, and all over the world and ship donated books to them. The Friends also send a variety of additional books in most genres in case they have not been able to submit requests.
Read With Me program  each baby born in Olmsted County receives a book bag containing his or her first book.
Adopt-a-library – Friends have adopted libraries in other communities and helped them to fill out holes in their collections when we have multiple copies of books or when the library suffers from natural disasters such as floods, tornadoes, etc.
Community Events - Friends attend local events such as the ArtiGras and ArtWalk and Poetry Conferences, and sell books and materials to these specialized audiences.
Fundraising - Friends volunteer to give up their Saturday mornings in order to conduct the Second Saturday Sales in the Bookstore as an additional fundraiser. They also help with special fundraisers, such as icecream socials or teas.
Administration - No business can be a success without good management. The Friends have committees who take care of the business end of things such as scheduling, training, accounting, marketing, etc.
The Friends’ Bookstore is a great asset to the Rochester Public Library and appreciated by all the library staff.