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USED BOOK SALES AT CUBBERLEY AND TERMAN

Saturday
February 8
11 am - 4 pm

Regular book sale, with books 50 cents and up

4000 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
At the Cubberley
Community Center

Fiction * Mysteries
Natural History
CDs * Sheet Music
The Harvard Classics
Encyclopedia Britannica
Children's Books
Paintings

***

Bargain book sale, with books 25 cents and up

661 Arastradero Road
Palo Alto
At the Terman
Library

All proceeds go to help Palo Alto libraries.

 


Local TV Show Discusses Palo Alto Libraries

To help celebrate Library Lover's Month, our local Community Access Channel is broadcasting a segment on the Palo Alto libraries, hosted by recently-retired Library Director Mary Jo Levy.  You can see this segment at the following times throughout February:

Cable Channel 27
 Wednesdays at 7:30 pm
 Saturdays at noon

Cable Channel 28
 Saturdays at 6:05 pm

Libraries Closed for February Holiday

All Palo Alto libraries will be closed Monday, February 17 for the President's Day holiday.

Wireless Internet Now Available at Mitchell Park Library
You can now connect your laptop to the Internet at Mitchell Park using 802.11b wireless access.  This popular service is also available at the Main Library.  More information

City Auditor Analyzes our Libraries
The recent Palo Alto city auditor's report (see page 29) demonstrates that our libraries serve our community well, but have challenges too.  Palo Alto's libraries circulate 9% more items per capita than five years ago, and more than any other library in the neighboring cities on a per capita basis.  Palo Alto's six branches are open a combined total of 14,000 hours a year, whereas adjacent cities as large or larger have just one to three branches.  In the most recent fiscal year, there were 815,630 library visits, including 26,224 attendees of family programs, many of which are sponsored by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.  Library patrons used over 80,000 hours of free Internet access during the year too.

At the same time, costs have increased by some measures.  For instance, the libraries cost $86 a year to run per capita, up 31% over the last five years.  Meanwhile, the number of volumes that the library owns per capita has declined by 5% during that time.  And while circulation is up, the number of cardholders has actually declined by 21% over the last five years.
Which Book Sale to Go to?
Now that we have three separate book sales, which one should you go to?  Our biggest sale is the second Saturday of each month at the Cubberley Community Center.  With about 30,000 books, you'll find every possible topic, all conveniently organized.  Children's books are located here, as are lots of used sheet music, videotapes, music CDs, and audio cassettes.  Hardbound books are $1.00 and up, while paperbacks start at just 50 cents.  Our sale at Cubberley runs from at 11 am to 4 pm on February 8 this month. [ Yahoo! Maps ]Road map to Cubberley Where our room is at Cubberley

On the very same day and time, our bargain book sale is at the Terman Library, which is only a few minutes drive away from Cubberley.  Here, you'll find about 6,000 books at even lower prices: typically 50 cents for a hardbound book and 25 cents for a paperback.  You'll also find lots of used magazines and LP records here.[ Yahoo! Maps ]Road map to Terman

Our third sale is ongoing at the Downtown Library, right inside the main entrance.  You can browse and buy from eight shelves of books whenever the branch is open, which is Tuesday through Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm.  Most hardbound books are $1.00 and paperbacks are 50 cents.  It's a great place to pick up a book or two to read on your next downtown visit.  [ Yahoo! Maps ]Road map to the Downtown Library

More information on the sales


Library Cuts Hours Due to Budget Woes
Hard economic times are affecting Palo Alto and its libraries. With a $9 million reduction expected in Palo Alto's $125 million general budget, our libraries are bracing for a city-wide across-the-board budget cut of 5%.  That percentage, if applied to the 2002-2003 anticipated library budget of $4.9 million, will reduce it by about $245,000, making it hard to maintain the present hours and services.

Already, two branches are going to curtail hours.  Beginning on February 17, the College Terrace branch will be closed on Thursdays and the Downtown branch will be closed on Mondays.  These reduced hours will be in effect at least until the end of the city's fiscal year on June 30, 2003.  The city is also discussing closing the Terman library altogether.

It's up to those of us who use and enjoy the Palo Alto Library to help remedy this situation.  You can make a difference by volunteering at the library, buying books at our sales, donating your used books, joining the Friends of Palo Alto Library, and/or contributing financially to the library.  Our library is a vital part of our community, so please do all you can to help it out during these times.

Play our New Book Games

?

 Can you name the book that begins, "WHEN I WROTE the following pages, or rather the bulk of them, I lived alone, in the woods, a mile from any neighbor?"  You'll find this question and many more at our new book games debuting this month, which is Library Lover's Month.  Just click on the link above to explore your knowledge of English literature, modern novels, horror, children's books, science fiction, books made into films, and much more.

How Low Are our Book Prices?

Incredibly low!  Used book stores typically charge 50% of the cover price, but our prices are far lower than that.  Here are just two examples of how much you'll save at our book sales:

Hearts in Atlantis .. only 25 cents at our bargain room
Hearts in Atlantis
(paperback)

List price: $7.99  new
BarnesandNoble.com $7.99  new
Amazon.com: $7.99  new
Border's (Palo Alto): $5.99  new
Know Knew Books (Palo Alto): $3.98  used
BookBuyers (Mountain View): $3.49  used
Our price at Terman: $0.25  used

Beginning ASP.NET using VB.NET .. only $2.00 at our Cubberley sale
Beginning ASP.NET
using VB.NET

List price: $39.95  new
Border's (Palo Alto): $39.95  new
BarnesandNoble.com $31.99  new
Amazon.com: $27.50  used
ebay.com: $20.54  used
Our price at Cubberley: $2.00  used

You'll find these same low prices on all the other tens of thousands of books that we have.  While some booksellers may pledge a portion of your purchase to help local libraries, we give 100%.  Plus, we don't charge sales tax and we have the friendliest sales people you'll ever find. 

Trip to the Antiquarian Book Fair

For those attending our trip to the California International Antiquarian Book Fair on February 8, please remember that the coach leaves for San Francisco at 10:00 am behind Wells Fargo at Old Stanford Farm, 600 Quarry Road, Stanford Shopping Center.  The reservation deadline ended on January 31.  More information about the fair

This notice comes to you from the non-profit organization Friends of the Palo Alto Library.  We're proud to have provided approximately $200,000 in our 2001/2002 fiscal year to help Palo Alto public libraries.  Visit our web site.  Become a member by joining online.

To receive your own copy of this e-mail notice, please e-mail us.  If you do not want to receive these e-mail notices in the future, please reply with the words "Remove Me" in the subject line.