The 40th Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale will be held August 2-4 at the Community Center in Grand Marais. Thursday night is for Library Friends members only between 5 and 7 p.m. Memberships will be sold at the Community Center one hour prior to the sale on Thursday afternoon. Friday the book sale hours are 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Saturday hours are 8 a.m. to noon.
A free will donation for books from the sale will be accepted, rather than having the items individually priced.
The Library Friends of Cook County is an all-volunteer nonprofit service organization that conducts the sale every year to raise funds in support of the library mission for the Grand Marais Public Library and all of the school and organizational libraries of Cook County.
In addition to contributing funds for books, materials, and programming, the Library Friends also provides money for special projects in all of the libraries.
The success of the sale depends on books and other materials donated throughout the year, prior to the August sale. Donated books for the sale this year will be accepted until July 7, 2018. The sale is also made possible through the many volunteers that spend hundreds of hours sorting and boxing books as well as working the actual sale.
The Friends of the Library is once again partnering with the Summer Reading Program at the library. Parents of children participating can pick up a coupon at the library. Children can present the coupon at the book sale to select up to 10 free books.
The Friends of the Library is saddened to announce that the 2018 sale will be the last. Issues around storage and recycling are preventing the sale from continuing.
The capacity to store the high volume of books donated is no longer available at the Grand Marais City Hall or the Grand Marais Recycling Center. Communities outside of Cook County are not accepting large quantities of books for recycling and these costs will have to be absorbed internally. There are rental facilities available to store boxed books, but this would incur significant expense.
Steve Harsin, director of the Grand Marais Library, commented on the termination of the Library Friends annual sale: “The loss of the Library Friends book sale presents a multi-dimensional problem for the Grand Marais Public Library. First, we depend on their support through annual financial contributions, which are significantly funded by the sale.
“More importantly, the Friends’ work provides books, funds and program support to the school libraries of Cook County, and the Violence Prevention, Sawtooth Clinic, and Grand Portage Community Center libraries.
“Thirdly, the library has received a tidal wave of donated books on behalf of the Friends. Without a sale, we will only be able to accept donations of 2017-2018 books, as that is what we have the capacity to absorb. Last but not least, the Friends have been a valuable resource to find channels for recycling books that can no longer be used. The library and the community will greatly miss all of the benefits the annual sale has consistently provided.”
The Library Friends would like your help in two ways:
. If anyone in the community is aware of potential space to store books in the future, contact Duane Hasegawa at dkazusa@gmail.com.
. If anyone in the community is interested in volunteering for the 2018 book sale, contact Donna Roles at rolesneavin@gmail.com.
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