Book Sale at Pleasant Valley Days

On September 13 and 14, the town of Pleasant Valley, NY, will celebrate "Pleasant Valley Days." Readers from Pleasant Valley will recall the disappointment last year when this popular annual event had to be cancelled because of flooding of the main site, Cady Field behind Town Hall.

This year, as for several years past, the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library will celebrate Pleasant Valley Days by selling books on the lawn in front of the Library, weather permitting. In case of rain, the book sale will move into the reading room that is on the right as you enter the front door of the Library. While the main events will be at Cady Field, transport of all the books the Friends will offer to that site is impractical.  The Friends will also have available brochures describing the Building Expansion project for the Library.

Here is some background on the Friends. When I was President of the Board of Trustees back in 2000-01, it was a great time to move the Library forward. The year before, the voters of Pleasant Valley had secured funding of the Library at a new higher rate, enabling me to hire a young but highly qualified Library Director, Daniela Pulice. We were also able to pursue a suggestion from Trustee Steve MacNish to begin investigating a resolution for the impending situation of running out of space for new books; this investigation led ultimately to the current plan for Library expansion. As part of the new directions and opportunities for the Library in 2000-01, I asked Daniela to form a Friends group.

Forming a Friends group was in some ways the hardest of the several tasks.  It was a year or two after my terms as President had ended before former trustee, Mary Apostol, and a few other volunteers established the Friends of the Pleasant Valley Library. Because the group wanted donations to the Friends to be tax free, the Friends operate financially as part of the Library, but otherwise are independent.  Their charter is to aid the Library by raising money through book sales and other ways, and then to spend that money on projects that the Library would otherwise be unable to afford.  A recent example of how that money has been spent is the children's computer on the new second floor.

The Friends took over management and sales of the donated books from the Trustees. Nearly every day someone local family opening up space in their personal library donates a box or two of previously read--for the most part--books (not all books bought get read) or video or audio tapes, CDs, or DVDs.  The donations should be given to Library staff at the circulation desk. Library staff then goes through the books to see if any are in good shape and also a meaningful addition to the collection, saving the Library from buying a copy. The books are then taken to the basement where they are sorted by volunteers from the Friends and put into boxes labeled "Fiction," "Cookbooks," "Travel," and the like. Several times a year, some or all of the boxes are carried up into the daylight for a Friends' book sale. Although the largest book sale is at the Book Fair in spring, selected books are brought out for special events such as the holiday season and, of course, Pleasant Valley Days. Gently used books--those in bad condition are discarded--are an inexpensive alternative to new ones and a chance to discover authors or topics you might have missed previously.

The Friends are always looking for new members and new ideas. If you are interested in becoming a member, please contact either , Sheri Neal, current president of the Friends, or Barbara Shapley, who is the liaison between the Friends and the Trustees.  Just leave your name with any of the Library staff and they will pass the information along to the Friends.