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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday,
November 12
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
 
Sunday,
November 13
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.  This room hosts the special collection of picture books from a collector's estate.  It also has many other 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 items for November:

"Mint condition" Anthropology
and Sociology books
 
Books by/about Nobel Prize winners
 
Some Pinter plays
 
A ten-year collection
of New Yorker Magazines
 
Lots of December Holiday books
 
Computer Books
 
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 Update
Various events are scheduled in December to celebrate the Children's Library renovation.  The building is scheduled to close on December 17 for about two years.
 
Veteran's Day Holiday
The library will be closed on Friday, November 11 for the Veteran's Day Holiday.
 
Non-Profit Book Giveaway
We continue to give bargain room books after the sale to many local non-profit organizations and schools.  The giveaway this month is from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, November 13.  More information.
 
Search All California Libraries at Once
You can now use the free California Library Catalog to search the collections of 1,221 libraries in California all at once.  Use this to find books, DVDs, and other items that aren't in the Palo Alto library but may be at some other library in the Bay Area or California.  You'll also soon be able to search this catalog from Google, Yahoo, and other search services and then even locate the nearest libraries that have the item you seek by including your zip code.  These new services come from a joint project of the California State Library, Califa (a consortium of California libraries), and OCLC (the Online Computer Library Center).  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.
Collector Donates Children's Books
We received a large donation this past month of beautiful children’s picture books from the estate of a children’s book collector.  Most are first editions, in perfect condition, and represent a broad cross section of authors and illustrators of the last two decades.  These books will make excellent gifts for children or teachers and will be featured in the Children’s Room (K6) at this month's sale.
 
Public Meeting to Discuss Library Changes on November 9
The library will hold a community meeting on Wednesday, November 9 at the Downtown Branch Library at 270 Forest Avenue to present plans to shrink the public area of the Downtown Branch to accommodate more staff.  This will be the first opportunity for the public to see the plans since the project was announced early this year.  There will also be an opportunity for library users to suggest priorities for services, programs, and collections to improve the branch.  Refreshments will be served.  A similar meeting will be held on December 6 for the Main Library changes.
 
Preview our Bookshelves
Click here to see some of the shelves at this weekend's sale
Check out some of the 54,000 books we'll have for sale this month via our preview pictures, organized by categories.  We apologize that we can't take pictures of every shelf and more donations are still coming in.
 
New Directors and Officers Elected
At our annual meeting on October 27, about 130 people gathered to hear about Google searching and to elect our directors and officers.  The nine directors elected to serve two-year terms beginning in 2006 are Wendy Akers-Ghose, Betsy Allyn, Jeff Levinsky, Marty Paddock, Margarita Quihuis, Martha Schmidt, Barbara Silberling, Bob Otnes, and Tom Wyman.  Officers for 2006 are Jeff Levinsky as President, Martha Schmidt as Vice President, Margarita Quihuis as Secretary, Bob Moss as Treasurer, and Bob Otnes as Assistant Treasurer.
 
At the meeting, representative from Google described many special features of Google search beyond the usual ones.  A list of all the techniques they presented is at Google Features.
 
Booksale Helps Katrina Victims
To aid victims of recent hurricane Katrina, the Friends of the Palo Alto Library booksale donated over the last two months several hundred children's books to restock school libraries in Louisiana.  Friends of Library groups from all around the country have been sending donated books to public libraries, school libraries, and shelters in the affected areas.
 
Library Survey Discussion Scheduled for November 10
The research firm preparing the upcoming library survey will meet with the community at 7 pm on Thursday, November 10 at the Art Center Auditorium at 1313 Newell Road.  Godbe Research will present the Library's objectives, describe the survey methodology, and solicit suggestions from the community as to other objectives that the survey might include.  The survey will be conducted later this year among a random sample of Palo Altans, with results and recommendations presented to the City Council in early 2006 by the Library Advisory Commission.  Refreshments will be served at the meeting.
 
Library Issues Annual Report
The Palo Alto library recently released its annual report for the 2004-2005 fiscal year.  Perhaps due to some temporary closures during the year, library visits declined 1% and circulation went down 2.5% from the previous year.  Total attendance at library programs and special events fell by 8%, although more programs were held.  9,577 new titles were added to the library collection, but this was down about 10% from the previous year.  The library purchases about two copies on average of each title and owns a total of 264,511 items.
 
More and more people are using the library's computer resources.  Logins to online magazine collections, encyclopedias, language training, and other resources rose a spectacular 643% to 465 a day.  Catalog searches rose to 708,703, which is more than one for every two items checked out.  80,575 holds were placed, almost three times as many as in the prior year.  Internet sessions on library computers (not including library-supplied laptops) climbed by 18% to about 312 per day.  Self-check machines are increasingly popular and accounted for 35% of checkouts at the two branches with them.
 
Library volunteerism rose to the equivalent of about 3.75 full-time staff members, and this was accomplished with fewer volunteers, each averaging about 3.5 hours a month.
 
Palo Alto library users are asking fewer questions of library staff, continuing a long-term and nationwide trend.  Users made 136,616 reference and research inquiries in 2004-2005, down 15% from the previous year.
 
The library doesn't report the total number of active library cards, but 7% more were issued this year than last.  Among just Palo Alto residents, those with Palo Alto City Library cards rose 7% over last year while those with cards from neighboring city libraries fell by 5%.
 
Song Celebrates Booksale
Here's a tongue-in-cheek song about the booksale as performed by the Friends of the Palo Alto Library Singers at this year's annual meeting:

And All Those Books!
To the tune of And All That Jazz
With apologies to Kander and Ebb

Verse 1 (C major)

 

C'mon babe, why don’t we hit the sale?

And all those books!

 

I’m gonna check each room, and plumb each bargain bale,

And all those books!

 

Bring a truck - I’ll find a parking spot,

The selection’s huge, but the price is not.

 

It’s just a crowded hall, where there’s a monthly brawl,

And all - those - books!

 

Verse 2 (D flat major)

 

Get in line, before it’s 2 am,

For all those books!

 

You’ll meet the nicest folks, and get to bond with them,

And all those books!

 

Rush right in, and let the bargains fly,

Till your tab is full and your credit’s dry.

 

You bought a hundred bags, and now your bumper drags

From all - those - books!

 

Refrain (D major)

 

Take - whenever you’re outside a real deep breath,

And all those books,

O-therwise the lack of air will cause your death.

And all those books.

 

If you wander from your aisle,

Someone else will grab your pile.

 

It’s so hot, they chill the spot

For all - those - books.

 

Verse 3 (C major)

 

Once you’re home, you’re really horrified,

With all those books.

 

It’s gonna take ten years to merely look inside,

All those books.

 

There’s no hope, what are you gonna do,

For you’ve filled your house, and your warehouse too?

 

It’s lookin’ pretty black - you’d better donate back

All - those - books.

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 97% 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.