Visit our web site 

CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday,
April 8
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
 
Sunday,
April 9
1 pm - 4 pm

Featured topics for April:

Biography
Books on Tape
CDs • Chinese Art
Civil War • Classics
Cooking
Greeting Cards
History
Military History
Modern Literature
Posters • Videos
 
And over 50,000 other items

4000 Middlefield Road
Palo Alto
Northwest corner of the Cubberley Community Center

Map
More information on the sales
Donate your old books

All proceeds go to help Palo Alto libraries.

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.  Numbered tickets for the main room are given out beginning at 8 am on Saturday.  These reserve your place in the line that forms before the 11 am opening.  Each person may pick up one or two tickets.

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 open at 10 am on Saturday.

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.

 
Kepler's Helps Palo Alto Library
If you mention the Friends of the Palo Alto Library when you buy books at Kepler's Books in Menlo Park, the store will donate 5% of your purchase price to our organization.  We appreciate this generous support from Kepler's. 
 
College Terrace Branch Closed on Saturday
Major upgrade work on the College Terrace Library's electrical system will close the branch on Saturday, April 8.  The Friends of the Palo Alto Library 9 Library Project is paying for $48,000 of these improvements through a Cable Co-op Legacy Grant.  Although this is the second time that this electrical work has closed the branch on a Friends of the Library sale day, this is merely a coincidence and not a plan to coerce College Terrace residents to go to the sale!  At least, that's our official position.  More information.
 
Non-Profit Book Giveaway
Non-profit organizations and schools that need free books should come to the Bargain Room this month from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, April 9.  More information.

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.
Special Collections Donated to Sale
We've received some remarkable donations this past month, including a stunning collection of about 400 books on Chinese Art.  These come from a Bay Area artist and are in excellent condition.  The incredible collection includes books on calligraphy, ancient masters, contemporary artists, paintings of birds, beasts, flowers, and insects, and landscapes.
 
Another person contributed about 150 books on art and architecture, including many on France, Japan, and art museums worldwide.
 
We also received a huge collection of about 500 Military History books, including many on the Civil War and World Wars I and II.  Then, there is a set of about 100 like-new cookbooks, mostly on American cuisine.
 
We are very grateful to our donors for providing us with these remarkable collections.  In fact, we received so many books this month that we have filled every shelf for Saturday's sale.
 
Peek at our Bookshelves
Click here to see some of the shelves at this weekend's sale
See some of the books we've recently received and get a head start on this weekend's booksale by clicking here.
 
Thursday, April 6 Meeting on Downtown Library Status
At its previous meeting, Palo Alto's Police Building Blue Ribbon Task Force voted to consider the present Downtown Library site and parking lots behind California Avenue as two possible sites for a new police station headquarters.  During previous site studies, the library location had been dropped from consideration by the City Council due to citizen outcry.  If the library site were the final choice, the present building and surrounding patios would be razed.
 
The Task Force has not yet addressed whether there would be a replacement library, where it would be, or what would happen during construction, which no doubt would take several years.  The Friends of the Palo Alto Library intends to raise these and other concerns with the Task Force.  The Task Force meets next on Thursday, April 6, at 7 pm at the Cubberley Community Center in Room H5 (not far from our booksale).  Palo Alto Weekly articleTask Force information.  Contact downtownlibraryadvocates@yahoo.com for more information. 
 
Community Meetings on Long-Term Library Plan
Four meetings will be held in early May to gather public feedback on the Library Advisory Commission's long-term library plan.  The commission was asked in December 2004 to develop a new plan for Palo Alto's libraries.  A draft of their plan will then be presented to the City Council in mid-May and the final version will be ready in June.
 
The plan is expected to address the status of Palo Alto's five branches, how the collection, hours, and other services can be improved, and whether the Mitchell Park branch should be expanded.  The City Council recently targetted June 2008 as the date for a possible ballot measure to fund the improvements.
 
Please attend one of the four community meetings to learn more about the recommendations and provide your input:
 
Thursday, May 4, 7 pm at Mitchell Park Library
 
Saturday, May 6, 2 pm at Downtown Library
 
Monday, May 8, 7 pm at College Terrace Library
 
Wednesday, May 10, 7 pm at Main Library
 
Light refreshments will be provided in part by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library.  If you can't attend any of these meetings, you may wish to come to or watch on cable the April 13 and April 27 meetings of the Library Advisory Commission at 7 pm at City Hall.  More information.  Recent Palo Alto Weekly article.
 
Book Auction Scheduled for May
Just a reminder that we'll be holding a special book auction on Sunday, May 13 alongside our regular booksale.  The auction will feature approximately 150 collector's items and special books of higher value than sell at our regular sale.  These books will be listed online and available for viewing in advance.  There will be lots of information in our May newsletter.
 
Get Help with the Library Catalog
There is one more upcoming session of the library class on how to use the library computer catalog system.  You'll learn how to find books and other items, place a hold, and review your account.  You will need to already know a little about using a computer.  The class will be held on Wednesday, April 19, at 10 am at the Main Library and space is limited, so you must pre-register online or call 329-2435 and press 2.
 
Interesting Facts from the Library Survey
With the release of additional data from the recent city-wide library survey, some interesting insights have emerged.  Here are a few:
 
Overall, 87% of Palo Altans surveyed said they were somewhat or very satisfied with the present libraries.  The happiest residents are those between 18 to 29 years old, of whom all 100% were either somewhat (25.2%) or very (74.8%) satisfied.  The least happy were over 64, of whom 27.4% were somewhat satisfied and 54.9% were very satisfied with the library. 
 
New residents in Palo Alto tended to be more satisfied with the library.  For instance, only 3.7% of those who have been here fewer than 3 years were dissatisfied, compared to 15.5% of those who have lived her over 20 years.
 
23% of those with a graduate or professional degree felt the library no longer met their needs, but only 10% of those without college degrees agreed.
 
Of all who were asked why they were dissatisfied with the library, 30.6% who used the Main Library said facilities were outdated or too cramped versus 27.7% of Mitchell Park users.  When split by gender, 33% of women cited these facility problems compared to 23% of men. 
 
Among the most requested improvements were more children's programs.  Not surprisingly, this was judged important by 85.8% of those with children versus 48.9% of those without children.  Similarly, more programs for teens were important to 81.1% of those with children versus 54.1% of those with none.
 
Celebrity Book Picks
For a number of years, the Gardiner Public Library in Gardiner, Maine has been asking celebrities to name their favorite books.  Here is just a sampling of the list:

Lauren Bacall:  All the Pretty Horses by Cormac McCarthy and The Remains of the Day by Kazuo Ishiguro

Howard Cosell:  The Red and the Black by Marie Henri Beyle Stendhal

Bill Gates:  The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger and A Lesson Before Dying by Ernest Gaines

Billie Jean King:  Days of Grace by Arthur Ashe

Yo-Yo Ma:  Haroun and the Sea of Stories by Salman Rushdie

Nelson Mandela:  War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy

Maureen Stapleton:  The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Mike Wallace:  The Man Who Stayed Behind by Sidney Rittenberg and Amanda Bennett

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 1.9% for our 2004-2005 fiscal year.  In other words, about 98% 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.