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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday, May 14
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
 
Sunday, May 15
1 pm - 4 pm

Children's Books in K6
Bargain Books in K7

Room K6 in the K wing (see map) has children's books, including picture books, school age fiction, award winners and books for parents and teachers, many for under $1.  Room K7 next door is the bargain room, where paperbacks are 50 cents, hardcovers are $1.00, and children's books are just 25 cents each.  Pay just half of that in the bargain room after 12:30 pm on Saturday and all day on Sunday.  On Sunday, you can also buy grocery bags in the bargain room for $5 and fill them with books.

Main Book Room Sale
In our main room, prices are also way below what used book stores charge.  Paperbacks are 50 cents and up, and hardcovers are $1.00 and up.  This room opens at 11 am on Saturday (one hour after the other rooms), but you can reserve your place in the line that forms by picking up one or two tickets as early as 8 am.  No ticket is needed to get in.

Featured items for May

Arts and Crafts Magazines
Books on Horses
Comics
Computer Books
The Great Courses
Laser Discs * Posters
Books from University Presses
 
Old Newspapers:
Aberdeen (WA) Daily World 1918
Woodland Daily Democrat 1895
 
And much, much more!

4000 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
Near the northwest end of the Cubberley Community Center

Room locations

More information on the sales
Donate your old books

All proceeds go to help Palo Alto libraries.

 
Children's Library Plans More Space
The architects for the Children's Library project have worked out how to add even more space to the 65-year old building.  Originally, the project hoped to enlarge the library by 2,250 square feet by adding wings on both ends.  The architect's plans, now 65% complete, show that the new wings will actually add about 2,660 square feet, 410 more than originally projected.  This means the library will be expanding overall by about 73%, a welcome improvement for the cramped branch.
 
Libraries Close May 30 for Memorial Day
All Palo Alto City libraries will be closed on Monday, May 30 for the Memorial Day holiday.

Suggestions?
We're always eager to hear your suggestions for ways to improve our book sale.  Please email them to us at suggestions@friendspaloaltolib.org or mention them to a volunteer at the sale.
Outdoor Poster Sale
This month's sale features all kinds of posters, which you'll find for sale outside our main room.  We have scores and scores of wonderful movie posters, art prints, old travel posters, and reprints of old advertisements.  Our prices are very low too, with posters starting at just 25 cents. 
 
Top 10 Things Overheard at the April Booksale

Here are the top ten things overheard at last month's sale:

10. Yeah, I got here late .. around 5 am.
9. 308133?  I'm 308132.  Nice to meet you.
8. Only fifty cents?  Are you sure?
7. Hey look, I donated that book just last week.
6. Can I rent a truck around here?  I think I'm going to need one.
5. What do you mean you're closing?  I still have another 20,000 books to look at.
4. So what exactly is ephemera?
3. Yes, I do need a receipt.  Otherwise no one will believe how little I paid.
2. Don't worry, I have a whole warehouse I'm filling with books from here.

And the number one thing overheard at the April booksale:

1. Another two rooms? Oh my gosh!

 
Library Laptops Provide More than Internet
You won't have to wait so long to get on a computer at the Main and Mitchell Park branches anymore, thanks to the Cable Co-op Legacy Grant to the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.  Since neither building had room for more tables to put computers on, we instead provided seven laptop computers at each branch, which you can use anywhere within the libraries.  You can even take the computers outside into the patios when it's not raining.  The IBM laptops connect to the Internet via high-speed wireless, so you can browse and use the web as fast as ever.  The laptops also provide some other features, including:
  • Microsoft Word 2003
  • Microsoft Excel 2003
  • Microsoft PowerPoint 2003
  • Microsoft Publisher 2003
  • Microsoft Access 2003
  • CD burner
  • DVD viewing
  • 15" screen
  • USB ports, so you can use flash drives to save files
  • Optional mouse (ask at desk)
  • Audio headphones (ask at desk)
  • External floppy disk drive (ask at desk)

Anyone ten years or older can check out a laptop for up to two hours a day.  See the loan policy and official press release.

 
Proposed Budget Preserves Library Services
The City of Palo Alto faces a $5.2 million shortfall for the fiscal year starting July 1.  At preliminary budget discussions held on Tuesday, May 10, the city proposed to make no service cuts to the libraries, so hours, staffing, and funding for collections will remain the same.  However, the library will lose one open librarian position that had not been filled due to the current hiring freeze and will not purchase some research materials that are available online anyway.  Other City departments are expected to undergo more severe cuts.  See the proposed library budget and the overall city budget.
 
Salinas Libraries Still Need Help

Although the city of Salinas recently managed to raise enough money to avert complete library closures (see news article), the agricultural community of 151,000 is still struggling to finance its libraries.  The funds raised so far will keep the city's libraries open only one day a week.

Several members of the Friends of the Palo Alto Library have asked how they can help out.  We recommend that you make contributions to the Rally Salinas Fund of the Community Foundation for Monterey County, the same fund supported by actor Bill Murray and many others.  If you donate online, be sure to specify in the appropriate box that your contribution is for the Rally Salinas Fund.  You can also mail a check to the Rally Salinas Fund at the Community Foundation for Monterey County, 945 South Main, Suite 205, Salinas, CA 93901.  Contributions to Rally Salinas are tax-deductible. 

 
Book Group Picks Year of Titles
Here's what our book group will be reading for the next year, as chosen at their April meeting.  The group meets at 7:30 pm on the second Thursday of every month at the Lucie Stern Community Center Fireside Room at 1305 Middlefield Road.  Click on any title to read some reviews:
Date   Title and Author
May 12   The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
June 9   The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell
July 14   Under the Banner of Heaven by John Krakauer
August 11   The Professor and the Madman by Simon Winchester

Dates
to be
chosen
at the
May 12
meeting
   
  The Bird Man and the Lap Dancer by Eric Hansen
  Collapse by Jared Diamond
  The Trouble With Islam by Irshad Manji
  The Dubliners by James Joyce
  Embers by Sandor Marai
  Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf
  Drop City by T. Coraghessan Boyle
 
Tom and Ellen Wyman Honored
Long-time volunteers Tom and Ellen Wyman are being honored for their commitment to the Palo Alto community on Sunday, May 22 by the Avenidas Senior Center.  Ellen Wyman is our previous president and Tom served on the Library Advisory Commission for six years.  Together, they ran the Friends' booksale for seven years, during which time it grew eight-fold.

Along with six others, the Wymans will be feted at the Lifetimes of Achievement 2005 ceremony from 2 to 4 pm at 450 Kingsley Avenue.  Tickets are $65 each and may be purchased by calling Avenidas at 326-5362.

This notice comes to you from the non-profit organization Friends of the Palo Alto Library.  No trees were felled in the making of this e-mail.  While the Better Business Bureau recommends that no more than 35% of a charitable organization's expenses be for management and fundraising expenses, ours were only 4.3% for our 2003-2004 fiscal year.  In other words, about 96% of the money we raised went to help Palo Alto Library users.  Visit our web site.  Become a member by joining online.

Be sure to receive your own free copy of this e-mail notice so that you'll know about all special upcoming books sales.  To sign up, just e-mail us.  We carefully protect the privacy of your e-mail address.  We will not share your e-mail address with any other organization and we will not use it for any purpose other than to send you these notices.  If you do not wish to receive these e-mail notices in the future, please reply with the words "Remove Me" in the subject line.