Welcome to Friends of the Salinas Public Library!

The Friends Bookshop SIDEWALK SALES will be held the first Saturday of each month. 10am - 3pm on the front lawn of the John Steinbeck Library. Hard cover books are 50 cents to a dollar each or $3 to $5 for a bag full - what a bargain! Become a member or renew your membership for $20 and receive a bag and free fill up. Look for the BOOKSHOP SALE TODAY signs outside JS Library on SIDEWALK SALE SATURDAYS!

The April 6 sale will be a special sale to raise funds for the over-800 books lost in the March Library Fire. Fire CHief Rodriguez will read at Storytime, 11 am in the JS library. Visit with Sparky the Fire dog and Snappy the Tortoise. A firetruck will be on display and book tables and carts outside will have great reading selections and bargains! Refreshments will be served in the Bookshop.

Be a Bookshop Supporter and display the fospl supporter card in your store window---send us an email at FOSPL.booksales @ hotmail.com and we'll send you a card!

The Big Give

This year the Friends of the Salinas Public Library has been chosen to be one of the non-profits chosen to be part of the Monterey County Weekly giving program called "The Big Give." Folks can go to www.mcgives.com and go to "Donate Now" and look for the us in the Education Section (there are five separate areas of designation) to give.

The Big Idea: Snappy, a leopard tortoise and a fiendish reader, is the mascot of the Salinas Public Library who wants every child in Salinas to love reading. He's popular --more than a million hits online -- and now that Snappy's viral, he's ready to go mobile! A $10,000 award from the National Council of Family Literacy bought the toroise a Snappy Mobile; the Friends are asking the community to help Snappy buy gas and put his new whells on the orad, taking Snappy to Natividad Medical Center, health clinics, community and day care centers and other places where children need his literacy activities.

You can also donate by printing out the giving page possibilities and send in a check. The Big Give ends December 31. Thanks everybody!

Salinas Public Library nominated for prestigious award!

On October 11, Congressman Sam Farr nominated the Salinas Public Library for the 2013 National IMLS Medal Award, citing the many extraordinary contributions to the residents of this "agriculture, Latino, youth oriented community". He makes the case saying:

The Salinas Public Library has transformed how we think about public libraries, and garnered trust and thousands of thousands of advocates and supporters. In the last few years, the library that was voted closed in 2005, that reopened after the residents approved a half cent sales tax, the hometown of Nobel Laureate John Steinbeck, has risen like a big beautiful phoenix in the City of Salinas.

The letter lists over a dozen major accomplishments and goes on to say:

What more can I say about this valuable asset to residents of Salinas? That over 15,000 people or 10% of the population of Salinas attended the Centennial celebration in 2009 at three libraries, a day of celebration that included a Time Capsule, and three multilayered Book Cakes circles by trains and bright with the covers of popular books. And two weeks ago, the R. O. Korean Navy brought 3000 books to the Salinas Public Library, a venture of the local Korean community and the Korean Consul General.

Yes, the Salinas Public Library has books and reading and story times for children. It also has Photoshop classes for seniors, Reading to Dogs for children to gain confidence from a non-judgmental friend, and ten display cases for the community to use to document their history and culture. What it has that warms my heart is that the people of Salinas consider it their library, they saved it from closure, and by focusing on the public with new “easy-to-get-library card policies and many programs, the Library became “the heart of the community.”

Read the letter in its entirety here.

Summer Reading Program a Big Success!

Thanks to the Friends of the Salinas Public Library and the dedicated and creative staff of SPL, 2012 was a great summer for reading at the Salinas Public Library. We signed up seven hundred more readers, gave away two hundred more books, and almost 300 more people attended our events than last year!

Friends' Corner Bookstore is open for business!

We'd like to thank the following people for making the grand opening of the bookstore a huge success: Maryalicia & Doug McRae, Marvin & Karla Wolf, Ken Allen, Pat Coble, Catherine Adams, Angie & Jacob Quesenberry, Bozwell Bueno, Anjalie Kulkain, Susie Thomas, Liz Nolan, Leland Irvine, Nicole Cisneros, Lee Hulquist, Chris Cepin, Gloria Moore, Travis Thieke, and Alicia Diaz. And thank you to everyone who came out!

"Bookshop Offers Bargain Brain Booster"

Check out Dave Nordstrand's column in the June 26 issue of The Salinas Californian! Like many of us, he delights in finding a bargain in the ever-changing selection that come through our little bookstore. He closes with the observation that "Small as it is, it’s a place of discovery."

And while you're here at The Corner Book Shop at the John Steinbeck Library, view the new landscaping on the corner of Church & W. San Luis street. Thorough the generosity of Smith & Enright Landscaping, Inc. and their One Garden at a Time program, the renovated landscaping adds dimension and color to the neighborhood.

Thank you to all the volunteers who made the Big Booksale a Big Success!
We'd like to give a huge shout-out to the following big book sale volunteers: Adrian, Amanda, Amber, Amy, Arecceli, Areceli, Caley, Catherine, Donna, Eric, Erik, Galiccia, Gloria, Imalay, Jacob, Kelsey, Matt, Monica, Nicole, Rob, Shazia, Travis, and Zelene. And a huge thank you to Angie Quesenberry!

The Friends' Bookstore is now open for business at the Steinbeck Library!

Come in and browse!

FOSPL Now at Amazon!
Browse our online store at Amazon.com. Our inventory is small but growing, thanks to Angie!

The Value of Libraries in the Digital Age
From the Readex Blog at Tufts University: Preserving the Library in the Digital Age by Benjamin L. Carp.

Browse our online store at Amazon.com.

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