The Friends of Lihue Public Library are springing into step for the long-awaited used book sale at Lihue Library coming up from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the Conference Room at Lihue Library. “This will be
The Friends of Lihue Public Library are springing into step for the long-awaited used book sale at Lihue Library coming up from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday in the Conference Room at Lihue Library.
“This will be the first fundraising used book sale since Kauai’s central public library was closed for renovations last year,” said Larry Lee, president of the fundraising Friends of the Library group. “The donations of used books never stopped coming and we have gazoodles of good books available.”
In addition to printed books, the sale will include DVDs, CDs, and a few audio books. Materials range from children’s picture books to young adult novels, to paperback and hardback fiction and non-fiction for adults.
There are dictionaries, Bibles, foreign language books, coffee table books, musical scores, Hawaiiana, some classic oldies and novels of every genre.
“You will not be disappointed,” said Susan Matsunaga, one of the Friends of Lihue Library board members organizing the sale. “We even have a huge box full of old vinyl records; some are the big 33.3s and there are some single song 45s, too.”
The Friends also report some fun bargain deals in the works for Saturday. But if you are selective come early on Friday when the sale opens.
“Volunteers will be working hard the week of the sale sorting and stacking books in preparation for the sale,” said Joy Kouchi, vice president of the Friends of Lihue Public Library. “This is all a volunteer effort,” said Kouchi, “we are here in support of the state’s public library in our neighborhood.”
“Used book sales by Friends groups are the main way that public libraries raise extra funds to support neighborhood libraries in Hawaii,” said Carolyn Larson, Lihue Library Branch Manager and book sale volunteer, “and we can use all the support we can get.” Despite legislative cuts to library budgets in the past years, Larson says the use of libraries keeps growing. “You might think that people are switching from using tangible paper books, magazines, newspapers, archives, etc., but in fact they are adding electronic services to them.”
Lihue Library’s experience shows that people still like the feel and smell and experience of a book in hand, she said, they still bring their children to the library to teach them to love books and reading, they still consult original paper sources.
But patrons are also becoming more and more tech savvy and wanting their libraries to help them navigate new information technologies and provide them with database services and e-books and online classes, things that they may not be able to do on their own.
“These services cost money,” Larson said, “and we can use all the community support we can get to fund and to advocate for these services.”
Info: 241-3222
