Black Friday

While I am one of those "shop through the year for holiday gifts" people, I admit I also get up to face the throngs on Black Friday. I would hate to be six days into those 8 crazy nights or stuck on December 23rd (yes, I celebrate both holidays) praying to the postal gods that the shipment will make it in the (st.) nick of time time.

Because today is such a huge shopping day for so many people, I thought it would be an appropriate time to let you know how you could remember the library while doing your holiday shopping. We have three main options for gifts to the library.

The Annual Fund is where general monetary donations throughout the year go. The money is spent on up-keep of the library as well as focusing on one or two projects for the year. Companies and individuals who donate to the annual fund get their name published in our newsletter (we're a non-profit so your donation may also be eligible for a tax deduction -- we're not tax experts though). This spring, the library had a flood so a good portion of the Annual Fund money was spent helping us recover.

Another way of supporting the library and its collection is through the "Adopt A Book Program" which provides for preservation of our historical publications and documents. The money donated goes toward a specific item --you can read some background about the books and look at them online in their tattered state to pick which one you want to adopt. We make sure a personalized book plate is put in the front, so users know whose generosity ensured future use of the material. The book plate can be donated in honor of someone in case you want to buy it as a gift for someone else. Your recipient can come into the library any time they want and admire the book-binder's handiwork and their name emblazoned on the inside cover.

Finally, the library has an Amazon Wishlist. While you're completing your other shopping on amazon, you can click over and skim the list. If anything catches your fancy, you can simply add it to your cart with the rest of your purchase and Amazon should know to send it to us. You'll notice there are items on the list for general office upkeep. We're currently using the 2004 version of Quicken and would love to upgrade to the 2011 version. We also have a laptop computer on the list. Our instructors muddle along on our current one which hasn't been replaced in a number of years and no longer has a working CD-Rom drive. As you would expect, the rest of the list is filled out with books. Many of these books have been requested by patrons or are for very specialized areas of insurance interest but aren't in our budget. If you find something that falls within your particular area of interest, we'd love it if you'd donate it to our library so we could share it with many more people.

We appreciate the many ways in which individuals and companies show their support for the library and hope that this information makes that support easier.