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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES

Saturday,
March 11
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
 
Sunday,
March 12
1 pm - 4 pm

Featured topics for March:

Classics • Cookbooks
Historical Fiction
Hymnals • Men's Health
Mysteries
Noise & Hearing
Romances • Sailing
The Story of Civilization
Who's Who in the World
Wine • Woodworking
 
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.

 
Events for National Library Week
Elementary school families are invited to attend five author events in honor of National Library Week:
 
Monday, April 3: Nixon School at 3:00 pm (especially for Nixon and Escondido families) Betsy Franco, Palo Alto author of over 50 books for children and young adults, including the popular Mathematickles.
 
Tuesday, April 4: Hoover School at 2:30 pm (especially for Hoover and Palo Verde early dismissal families) Cynthia Chin-Lee, Palo Alto author of picture books including Amelia to Zora and A Is for Asia.
 
Tuesday, April 4: Juana Briones at 3:00 pm (especially for Juana Briones, Barron Park and Ohlone families) Jane Wattenberg, author and illustrator of high-energy, hilarious picture books such as Henny-Penny and Never Cry WOOF!
 
Wednesday, April 5: Addison at 1:30 pm (especially for Addison, Walter Hays and Duveneck families) Anne Isaacs, award-winning author of the entertaining original tall tale, Swamp Angel, in addition to poetry books and novels for children.
 
Thursday, April 6: Fairmeadow at 3:00 pm (especially for Fairmeadow, El Carmelo and Palo Verde late dismissal families) Tim Myers, storyteller and picture book author of Tanuki’s Gift and Basho and the River Stones.
 
The authors will be available to sign books. There will be only a small number of books for sale at the events, so please pre-order books through your school (at all elementary schools except for Hoover).  Pre-orders and sales will be through Linden Tree Children’s Recordings and Books.
 
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, March  12.  More information.
Donated Books Flow In
We recently put out the call for more donations, and hundreds of boxes have been flowing in.  Our volunteers made ten trips to pick up all the books from just one donor in Menlo Park.  Between monthly sales, the incoming donated boxes of books pile up in our Main room until our sorters can get to them.  As you can see, it's rather overwhelming, but exciting too, because each box can contain some remarkable finds.
 
Peek at our Bookshelves
Click here to see some of the shelves at this weekend's sale
Get a head start on this weekend's booksale by clicking here to see pictures of over a hundred shelves.  This is still only a fraction of what we have, but we've included some different shelves this time to show the variety.
 
Library Patrons Prefer to be "Patrons"
As you may recall, the library staff has switched to calling those who use the library "customers," prompting recent letters to local papers criticizing this as too business-like and impersonal.  To see how popular the name change is with actual library users, last month we asked people to vote on what they prefer to be called.  As the table below shows, a majority opted to be called "patrons," with "user" being a strong second.
 

What People Prefer
to be Called

55% Patron
36% User
6% Visitor
3% Customer
0% Owner

Although this was not a scientific survey, our thanks to all 64 people who voted and one non-local reader who instead said simply to call her, "passionate, passionate about libraries in general."
 
Children's Library Construction to Begin
On Monday, March 6, the City Council unanimously approved the construction contracts for the Children's Library, launching a two-year project to renovate and expand the 66-year old structure.  We'd like to thank all our members, donors, volunteers, and booksale customers who helped make our $567,150 contribution to the project possible.  The two other major funders are the City of Palo Alto and the Palo Alto Library Foundation.  More about the projectPalo Alto Weekly article.
 
Free Online Guides from the Library
The library's reference staff has created these helpful online "Pathfinders":
 
Recommended Consumer Protection Resources (covers scams, fraud, identify theft, etc.)
Recommended Online and Library Medical and Health Resources
Recommended Online Sites for New Parents

To view these tipsheets, you'll need Adobe Acrobat Reader.  If you don't have this program already, you can get it for free by clicking on .
 
Get Help with the Library Catalog
The library is offering a free one-hour class on March 22, April 5, and April 19 (all Wednesdays) on how to use its 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 classes will be held at 10 am at the Main Library and space is limited, so you must pre-register online or call 329-2435 and press 2.
 
More Library Survey Results
Additional details are now available from the extensive Palo Alto library survey recently completed by the Godbe research firm.   These include a 94 page detailed report that interprets the survey results.  Overall, "87 percent were satisfied with the library (56% 'very satisfied' and 31% 'somewhat satisfied')."  There was a clear preference for keeping the current distributed [library] system, according to the report.  It includes insights into which segments of the community responded more strongly about certain library issues, finding that "a significantly greater percentage of those with graduate or professional degrees (23.2%) replied that the facilities no longer meet their needs than those with some college education or below (14.4%)."
 
Book Auction Scheduled for May
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.  However, these books will be listed online and available for viewing in advance.  We'll keep you informed in future newsletters about the auction.
 
Used Books as Art
Artists don't always see books as just for reading.  Using old, unwanted books, Berkeley artist Jim Rosenau has created some humorous furniture and sculptures, while Czech artist Matej Kren has built an incredible tower from thousands of titles as part of a museum exhibit on the beauty of books.
 
Upcoming Library Meetings
You can learn more about the upcoming library proposals at the next meeting of the Library Advisory Commission on Thursday, March 23 at 7 pm at City Hall, 250 Hamilton Avenue.  The proposals will continue to be worked on over the next months, with a final presentation to the City Council scheduled for June 26.  We'll bring you more news about the proposals as it becomes available.

S
uggestions?
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.
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.