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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday,
September 10
9 am - 4 pm
Main Room Entrance Times
Life members: 9 am
Other members: 10 am
Non-members: 11 am

 
Sunday,
September 11
1 pm - 4 pm

Main Book Room Sale
In our main room, prices are way below what used book stores charge.  Paperbacks are 50 cents and up, and hardcovers are $1.00 and up.  See the top story in the right column for details on the line and admission hours this month.

Children's Books in K6
Room K6 in the K wing (see map) is entirely filled with children's books and toys.  You'll find picture books, school age fiction, award winners, non-English titles, and books for parents and teachers, many for under $1.  This room and the bargain room will open at 9 am, an hour earlier than at previous sales.

Bargain Books in K7
Next door in K7 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.

Featured items for September

Books on:
Japanese-American Relocation
Vintage Automobiles
 
Books on Tape
Lots of Videos
 
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 to Close in November
The Children's Library is now expected to close in November for two years of reconstruction and expansion.  The closure was originally going to begin in the spring or summer, but the date was delayed.
 
Use Your Summer Reading Program Coupons
Children and teenagers who complete the library summer reading program are awarded a green coupon for our booksale.  The coupons are good for a $5 credit on books or merchandise and are valid through December 2005.  Thanks to Jason Mah for this story.

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.
Members Get in Early This Month
This Saturday (September 10) is our annual members-early sale.  Lifetime members of the Friends of the Palo Alto Library will be admitted at 9 am into the Main booksale room and can purchase up to 50 books during that hour.  At 10 am, all other members will be admitted and everyone can buy 12 books at a time, as usual.  At 11 am, the regular public will be admitted.  At noon, the limit ends on how many books you can buy at a time
 
The bargain and children's rooms will open at 9 am, an hour earlier than last month.  This gives you an opportunity to shop in those rooms if you intend to enter the Main Room at 10 am.
 
The tickets given out this month will be for the 10 am line, since most people who come early are members of the Friends.  Each member will get just one ticket, although members at the $25 through $250 levels can bring in their families.  A family consists of one or two adults, plus children.  Lifetime members can bring in their spouses.

Regular membership in the Friends is only $15 ($10 for students and seniors, $25 for families) and is tax-deductible.  Members also receive a discount coupon for the sale, discounts at Books Inc. in the Stanford Shopping Center, and eligibility for the Stanford Federal Credit Union.  If you're not a member, avoid delay at this sale by joining online right now.
 
Stanford Donates Books
Stanford's Hoover Institute and Bookstore both donated books to usThis month, we're selling some of the several thousand books recently donated to us from the research library at the Hoover Institute at Stanford University.  Many of these books are biographies and others are on political science and American history topics, such as the Civil War and Reconstruction.  These books will be displayed separately in the Main booksale room.
 
We'll also be offering many hundreds of brand-new books donated by the Stanford Bookstore.  These include academic works on a variety of topics, including science and political science, and even opera scores.  You'll find these books in their respective sections in the Main booksale room.
 
Win Two Free Meals
LogoWith people coming to our booksale from Southern California, the Sierras, Oregon, and even Texas, we wanted to show some hospitality to those who travel so far.  So we're offering a 25$ gift certificate for two free meals at Hobee's, one of Palo Alto's favorite restaurants, to the person who comes the furthest to attend this month's sale.

To be eligible, you must live at least 200 miles from Palo Alto and have arrived in Palo Alto on September 4th or later.  Please bring your driver's license or equivalent ID as proof of your current residence and an airline ticket or gas station receipt from along the route.  Show these at the ticket dispense point at the Main booksale room between 8 and 10:30 am on the Saturday of the sale.  The judges' decision is final.

We want to thank Hobee's for their generous support of our booksale.  They offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner at several nearby locations, including one about a mile from our sale.
 
$19,600 in One Month!
Our August booksale brought in $19,600, the most we've ever earned in a single month.  It was fantastic to see so many books fly out our doors.  Still, more donations keep coming in, and every shelf, table, and box is overflowing with books this month.
 
Thanks for the Bags
You've been wonderful about bringing empty grocery bags.  Please keep them coming.  You can hand them to us when you pick up your ticket at the Main Book room line or as you enter any booksale room.
 
College Terrace Library Survey
Neighbors of Palo Alto's College Terrace Library recently took a survey to see who uses the branch and what the community wants from it.  Virtually all of the 90 respondents, who were interviewed one-on-one, reported that they use the library every month, and almost two-thirds visit at least once a week.  62% were "very satisfied" with the collection, while 32% rated it only as "good."  The most popular reasons to come to the library, besides returning items, were for the books in the permanent collection (76%), new books (70%), and media items such as DVDs, video tapes, and CDs (64%).  Other popular uses included picking up items on hold (61%) and just reading or working (46%).  44% of respondents used the books in the children's section, and 16% attended a children's story time event at the library.
 
Only 48% of those surveyed lived in the immediate College Terrace neighborhood, with the rest coming from the Stanford campus, elsewhere in Palo Alto, or even outside the city.  Some visit during lunchtime from the nearby Stanford Industrial Park.  Only about half drove to the branch, with the others mostly walking (37%) or biking (10%) over.
 
The survey asked people to rate 20 possible improvements for the library.  The top choice was to to have the library buy books you recommend.  The other top requests (in order) were for book recommendations from the library staff, more new DVDs, more new bestsellers, Sunday hours, and the Link+ service, which would provide books for free from university libraries.
 
Members of the Friends of the Palo Alto Library assisted with the survey and we hope to help provide the requested improvements.  Just last month, as part of our overall giving to the city's libraries, we donated about $12,000 for new DVDs at College Terrace and almost $25,000 for more bestsellers to go there and at other branches.
 
Volunteers Make it Happen
145 people volunteered for the Friends of the Palo Alto Library over the twelve months ending in June 2005, contributing a total of 22,928 hours.  That's the equivalent of about 11 and a half people working full-time.  No wonder it's so busy at our book room.  Our thanks to Betsy Allyn and Barbara Silberling for assembling these statistics.
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.