Across the Director's Desk
Once again, the Friends of the Goshen Public Library and Historical Society helped kick-off the Great American Weekend with the annual ice cream social. Blueberry Mountain scooped out 205 dishes of ice cream before they ran out of all six flavors. Those unfortunate enough to have missed out on the ice cream joined the other Goshenites of all ages, who clapped and danced to the music of Brass Quintessence, styled "the house band." Thanks to the Friends for keeping this tradition (begun with the library's centennial celebration) alive.The Friends of the GPLHS draw their funding from your membership dollars, and the proceeds of book sales. They sponsor a year-round book sale case in the foyer of the library. They were also out in force on July 3rd for the Great American Weekend book sale--their main fund raiser each year. A small core of dedicated workers sweltered in the heat from 8 AM until 5 PM in support of the library. "Thank you" is an inadequate reward for their efforts. There are many ways the book sales could be improved, as passer~by and shoppers are willing to point out. They all take helpers: to sort and box books, to weed out the unsaleable items, to haul them in and out of the basement throughout the day. The members of the Friends, the library staff; the boy scouts, and the teens from St. Johns Youth organization who gave up part of their holiday for the library deserve a standing ovation without them, there would be no ice cream social, summer reading program materials and performers, holiday open house, PA system, wing ... many of the extras we have come to take for granted.
There were many boxes of books left in the basement. Enough for another sale which will be scheduled in the fall. The Friends have detemined they must sort through those books, weed out the unsaleable, and organize the rest. No new donations of books will be taken until after the fall sale. At that point we hope to have cleared the decks so we can start fresh for GAW 2000. We are grateful to those of you who wish to donate books, but we have inadequate space in which to store and sort book sale items, and the Friends who volunteer need room to manoeuver. Please bear with us. Better yet, volunteer to help! To volunteer, leave your name, phone number and times available at the circulation desk. As the headroom in the storage part of the basement is about 5 ft., short strong people and people with hard heads are especially welcome (smile).