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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday,
December 10
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
 
Sunday,
December 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.  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.

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 subjects for December:

Bargain Christmas Books
Biography
Civil War • Drama
French Language
Japanese Language
Music • Nature
New Paintings
Philosophy
Poetry • Religion
Sandburg's Lincoln
World War II
 
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.

 
Library Holiday Closures
The library will be closed from Saturday, December 24 through January 2 for the holiday season.  Check out all the books you'll need for those long winter nights in advance!
 
Non-Profit Book Giveaway
We continue to give bargain room books after the sale to non-profit organizations and schools, including organizations that supply books to hurricane Katrina victims.  Non-profits can come this month from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, December 11.  More information.
Wonderful Gifts at Booksale
At this weekend's sale, tables and shelves are stuffed with holiday and gift books.  "We have more books than we've ever had," says Marty Paddock, our booksale manager, thanks to a huge number of end-of-the-year donations.  The Children's Room is featuring autographed and inscribed children’s books from the remarkable collection we received recently.  You'll find books written or illustrated by Steven Kellogg, Tomie dePaola, and Robert San Souci, as well as Caldecott and Newbery winners, all in perfect condition.  That room also holds our usual fine selection of "I Can Read" books, classics and award winners, books for parents and teachers, and a wide variety of activity books for winter vacation.
 
If you can't decide which book, CD, DVD, video, poster, record, or tape would make the perfect present, consider our gift certificates, available at $5 each from any cashier.
 
Preview our Sale
Click here for an advance look at what's on many of this sale's bookshelves.  We appreciate all the people who said they enjoyed these pictures in recent months. Click here to see some of the shelves at this weekend's sale
 
Best Suggestion Contest
We love to hear your ideas for how to improve our book sale. The best suggestion sent in by the end of Sunday, December 11 will receive a Hobee's Restaurant $25 gift certificate. The second best suggestion will win a free bag of bargain room books.  Use the form below to enter as many times as you would like.  Our judges will pick the winners and notify them by e-mail.  We'd like to thank Hobee's Restaurant for their generous support of our sale.
 
 
Here's a way to improve the book sale:

 
My email address:

 
  
 
Thank our Book Rescuers
It's not news when a Silicon Valley high-tech company goes bankrupt, but our book team sees these as opportunities.  When a prominent Sunnyvale firm failed recently and vacated their facility, our alert volunteers approached someone who in turn contacted the property manager and we ended up with many boxes of great computer books.  Our thanks to John Yegge of Woodmont Real Estate Service, Stan Sieler, and Chuck Shimada for making this donation possible, and to Frank McConnell, our vigilant computer book section volunteer.
 
Support the Libraries by Holiday Shopping
If you can't find something at our booksale and end up buying it at Amazon.com, you can still help our libraries.  Just start your Amazon sessions by clicking here or on the Amazon link on the top right of any of our web pages at www.friendspaloaltolib.org.  Amazon will donate a percentage of your purchases to us, which we give to the library.  You pay no surcharge!  It's a free way to help our libraries.
 
Bag Shortage
Yes, we're short on bags again.  Please help by bringing spare grocery bags to the booksale.  You can hand these to the volunteers at the door as you enter.  You're also welcome to bring your own canvas and cloth bags.
 
Children's Library to Close for Two Years
Palo Alto's Children's Library is 65 years old this year, but instead of retiring, it's getting a total makeover.  Beginning on December 18, the library will be closed for two years while the building is seismically upgraded, made more accessible for people with disabilities, and expanded by 2,600 square feet.  The $2.6 million project was initiated by a grant to the Friends of the Palo Alto Library and funded by a three-way partnership between the City of Palo Alto, the Palo Alto Library Foundation, and the Friends.
 
To celebrate the expansion, The Children's Library Fairy play will be presented for kindergarten and older children on Thursday, December 8, at 3:30 and 7 pm.  Following the 3:30 performance, children and parents can join the Children's Red Wagon Parade to transfer books to the nearby Main Library.  The final day to visit the "old" Children's Library is December 17.
 
Although the majority of books from the library will be in storage during the two year construction, expanded collections and services for children will be located at Palo Alto's other four branches.  See pictures and more information.
 
Survey Underway
Palo Alto is conducting a city-wide home phone survey of library users to help determine what improvements to make.  A community meeting held on November 10 gave the Godbe survey team ideas about what to ask.  Some concerns were raised about the survey methodology, which excludes people who have only cell phones, aren't able to be reached by phone, or come from other cities and use our libraries.  The survey is intended to research general possibilities and then a later poll may determine whether the required 2/3 of voters would support a bond measure to enlarge or replace branches, and in particular the Mitchell Park branch.
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 2.9% for our 2004-2005 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.