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CUBBERLEY
USED BOOK SALES
Saturday,
June 10
10 am - 4 pm
Main Room opens at 11 am
Sunday,
June 11
1 pm - 4 pm
Featured topics for June:
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.
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$2.2 Billion of Used Books Sold |
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The U.S. used book market topped $2.2 billion in 2004, according to the Book
Industry Study Group. Their recently-released
report cites the
Internet as helping sell over 111 million used books in 2004. Still, this
represents only 8.4% of total consumer spending on books, suggesting there is
considerable room for growth. |
Library Closed
June 30 and July 4 |
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Palo Alto's libraries will be closed on Friday, June 30 for staff training and
on the following Tuesday for the July 4 holiday. Even
when the libraries are closed, you can still
search the online
catalog, submit
reference desk questions,
access many online resources, and
get book
recommendations. |
Free Library Catalog Training |
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Free one-hour classes are again being held on how to use the library's online
catalog, including how to search for books, place holds, and review your
account. The sessions are held every second week beginning with Wednesday,
June 14 at 10 am at the Main Library. You'll need just basic computer
skills and to pre-enroll at 329-2436 (at prompt, please press 2), by
email, or
online.
More information. |
Non-Profit Book Giveaway |
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Non-profit organizations and schools that need free books should come to the
Bargain Room this month from 4 to 6 pm on Sunday, June 11.
More
information. |
Suggestions? |
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| 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. |
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| Amazing Naval History Collection |
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We've received about four hundred books on naval history from the estate of
an avid Palo Alto collector. Although the volumes particular focus on
20th century ships and sea battles, there are titles on all eras, including
early English naval fleets. Biographies of admirals alone fill an
entire shelf. It's the "biggest thing I've ever seen in terms of the
number and quality of the volumes," says Dick Grote, our volunteer in charge
of Military History. He's put all the Naval History books on the south
wall of the Main Room, near the exit door.
 View these shelves. Dick also notes that back in the regular
Military History shelves on aisle 2C
are a lot of recently-arrived military aviation and World War II
books, particularly on Pearl Harbor and the war in the Pacific. |
Peek at our Bookshelves |
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See some of the interesting books we've recently received and get a head start on this weekend's booksale by clicking
here. |
Best American Fiction in Last 25 Years |
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The New York Times Book Review recently asked several hundred writers,
critics, and others to name the "single best work of American fiction
published in the last 25 years." The winner was Toni Morrison's
Beloved, and runner-ups were Don DeLillo's Underworld, John
Updike's four Rabbit Angstrom novels, and Phillip Roth's American
Pastoral. You'll find copies of these books and others that received
multiple votes along with additional titles by the same authors in a special
section on the west wall in the Main Room at this month's sale. See
the full
New York Times list. |
Council Helps Plan Next Library
Ballot Measure |
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Major themes from four community meetings held in May
Want a guarantee that branches wont ever be closed
Plan diminishes Newell, College Terrace and Forest Branches
Plan should restore reference books to College Terrace and Forest
Dont change the Library names
Plan sets up north-south conflict
Mitchell Park needs (at least) a modest expansion
Expand Main and Mitchell Park
Expand Main instead of Mitchell Park
Dont move support staff to Mitchell Park
Dont reduce emphasis at Childrens Library to 3rd grade and younger (from 5th grade)
Respect for work the LAC has done on draft plan
Source: Full Council presentation
On May 15, Palo Alto City Council members discussed the evolving
draft
library plan, a
minority report, community input
(see sidebar), and concerns from the public, especially about the cost and size
of the project. The Council decided to focus the proposal more on the upgrading of Mitchell Park Library and
away from controversial aspects such as a substantial increase in
operating hours and diminished scope of the four other libraries in the city.
According to the City Manager, the Council conceptually approved the following
key concepts in the draft recommendations:
Maintain all current library locations,
Expand and/or improve access to services and collections and seek
technological and other efficiencies, and
Upgrade Mitchell Park library services from branch library resource levels
without downgrading Main Library.
Further, the Council said that the City's general fund should not be expected to
fund service level improvements or capital costs. Instead, additional funding
will need to come from a parcel tax or other tax measure.
The Council also gave this guidance to the LAC:
Determine methods to reduce library operating costs.
Determine size requirements for Mitchell Park Library.
Determine facilities growth requirements (if any) at other libraries.
Explicitly describe service levels at Main/Newell and maintain service for
adults, teens and children.
Maintain collections for 4th and 5th graders at Children's Library.
Identify strategies and funding for increasing collections.
Provide more analysis of strategies related to City/School partnerships.
Prepare preliminary cost models/projections/estimates for capital and
staffing needs.
Develop scaled versions of the recommendations, with costs.
Outline consequences to the libraries if new funding is not approved.
The Council directed the LAC to return to the Council with the final report by
September 11, 2006. However, city staff indicate it may take more time to
collect all of the necessary information about size and costs for the Mitchell
Park Library.
See recent Palo
Alto Weekly articles on
the Council decision and
north vs. south Palo Alto. |
Incredible Online Resources |
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Palo Alto offers access to over 10,000 magazines and newspapers online
for free,
including Consumer Reports, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the
Wall Street Journal. This staggering collection includes many millions
of articles from previous and often current issues, either as full-text or
abstracts. Not only are these articles fully searchable in just
seconds, but you can access them at any hour from home, school, or office
with your Palo Alto library card and avoid paying the typical online
subscription fee that these publications charge.
More information.
Here's a quick taste of how easily you can
search Consumer Reports online for a product review:
1) Go to the
library's
Online Resources page and click on the top left entry entitled "General Reference Center".
2) Type
in your library card number.
3) Type in the product name you are looking for in the top box and "Consumer
Reports" in the bottommost box. You may also want to select the
option for searching the entire article contents.
4) Click on the Search button and
select among the articles that come up.
For example, a search
on "Prius" using the above steps takes you to an article comparing it with other
like cars in the February 2006 issue, along with 82 other citations. |
Jack Gill, 1921-2006 |
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We wish to express our deep
condolences to the family and friends of Jack Gill, who passed away in May.
Jack was an outstanding long-time loyal volunteer and the manager of our
booksale Poetry section up through last month. He was a
scholar, a gentleman, and a friend.
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Youth Summer Reading Programs |
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The library is holding two summer reading programs this year. Children
up through the fifth grade can join
Paws, Claws, Scales and Tales by setting a goal for the number of
books read or listened to during the summer. Various branches will
also host a series of
Wacky Wednesday events for kids each week at 3:30 pm.
Sixth through twelfth graders can set their summer reading goal in the teen
program called
Creature Feature.
The signup period for both programs is
June 15 through July 31. Click on the appropriate program name above
for information on how to enroll. Upon reaching their reading goals,
participants receive a certificate, a free paperback book, a coupon for a
free pizza at Round Table, and other surprises. Teens are eligible for
a drawing for an Apple iPod Shuffle. Prizes will be awarded August 1
through August 20. These programs are sponsored by local merchants and
the Friends of the Palo Alto Library. |
Children's Library
Project Underway |
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 Here's a peek at
the Children's Library as of this Monday, June 5. The outer wall on
the west side and the attached porch have been removed to prepare for the
extension that will be built on this end. A larger wing will be added
on the other side. The Magic Garden area is fenced off in the
background. The
entire renovation and expansion of the library is expected to take two years to complete. |
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