Category Archives: Fundraising

2023 Spring Used Book Sale

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Our next book sale is scheduled for Thursday, May 18 through Saturday, May 20. Hours correspond with the Library’s open hours: Thursday 9:30–7:30, Friday and Saturday 9:30–5:30. Over 5,000 books and other media will be on sale.

Standard prices: hardback books $3, mass market paperbacks (4″ wide) $1, other paperbound books $2, children’s books and coffee table books are priced as marked, CDs, LPs and audio books are $1 per title and multi-title media sets are $3.

On Saturday, May 20, all shoppers can fill standard brown paper grocery bags with books and other media and pay just $10 per bag full.

Friends memberships are resuming after the pandemic break. See the “Join” page on this website for the membership form. Completed forms and payment can be dropped at the library during the sale or any other time or they can be sent to Friends of the Library, 2114 Pacific Avenue, Forest Grove, OR 97116. Dues remain the same: $10 Individual / $20 Family / $35 Contributing / $100 Sustaining.

Membership has its benefits. Beside that warm feeling in their hearts, members get a 20% discount on all they purchase at the book sale on Friday, May 19. Members receive twice-a-year newsletters announcing book sales and other Friends activities. Members are always welcome at the monthly meetings held the second Wednesday of the month at 5:00 at the Library. The April 12 meeting is Friends Annual Meeting with election of officers, news of Friends activities and plans, and light refreshments.

Volunteers make the sale possible. We need and appreciate your help with set-up (Monday, May 15 to Wednesday, May 17), the sale itself (Thursday, May18 to Saturday, May 20) to clean-up (the morning of Monday, May 22). Please call Katie Allnutt at (971) 322-7933 to schedule your preferred job and time slot. Volunteers get two free books of their choice for each shift.

Dealer alert: Friends volunteers have screened book donations and library discards and removed some of them for sale online.

Spring 2020 Used Book Sale put on hold

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In response to the Coronavirus threat, to comply with city and state mandates and, most of all, for the safety of everyone, the scheduled Friends used book sale has been postponed until we can reschedule.
When a new date can be set we will post it on this website.
Be well, be safe, hunker down if you can.

On-going book sale in the Library

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Friends are selling donated books in the Library all the time!  Look for a magenta book truck in the main entrance area.  You’ll find donated books in great condition with new stock on a regular basis.  Prices are marked on green stickers just inside the cover.  Most are going for $3.  Pay at the Circulation (or “checkout”) desk: cash or checks, please.three

As ever, all proceeds go to the Library!

What happens to the books you donate?

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Books and other materials donated to the Forest Grove City Library are first reviewed by Library Staff to see if they should be added to the Library’s inventory.

For those that are not selected, and for books de-selected from the Library collection by staff, Friends of the Library volunteers check used book prices online to pick out those that are valued at $8 or more. Most of them will be put on sale at Amazon.com under Friends’ dealership name, “forestgrovelibraryfriends.”  Friends have more than 1,200 books on sale through Amazon and these online sales will net more than $5,000 for the Library during the Friends fiscal year.

Books in good condition that are not selected for online sales are sorted by Friends volunteers for the twice-a-year book sales and for ongoing sales in the library. The twice-a-year sales are Friends’ primary income source.  They have been making about $10,000 a year.  The ongoing in-library sales are a new Friends project.

Books left over from the twice-a-year sales are picked up by a private company, Better World Books. They sell books online and they also send books overseas to private non-profit organizations.  They also  provide us free boxes, free pick-up and give us a portion of their proceeds from sale of our books.

Making money for the Library is Friends’ first strategic priority but this process for library donations and discards has other benefits: (1) Between donations and discards, the library has around 12,000 books to dispose of every six months, (2) turning donations away would be bad for the Library’s public relations, (3) friends efforts make money for library programs and help recirculate these books in our own community.

Help Friends Help Your Library

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Have your income taxes done at H&R Block, and take this form to your Block Tax Professional.  If you are a new Block customer, the company will give $20 to Friends of the Forest Grove Library.

Another way to easily donate to Friends is through the AmazonSmile program.  When Amazon customers log on through the smile.amazon.com site, 0.5% of the sales price of most of the items they purchase will be donated by the Amazon Foundation to Friends of the Forest Grove Library.  No cost is incurred by either the purchaser or Friends.  None of the purchaser’s privileges at Amazon (Amazon Prime benefits, for example) are affected when buying through AmazonSmile.

The first time you log on to smile.amazon.com, you will be asked to name the non-profit organization of your choice.  To do so, there is a search option.  The registered name for Friends is Friends of the Forest Grove Public Library, Inc.

This is an easy way to help your Friends of the Library and your Forest Grove City Library at no cost to you!  Make it a habit to log on to Amazon through smile.amazon.com.

 Or write a check!  We don’t have a ‘donate button’ on this website yet but don’t let that stop you from donating to Friends! Send your check, with a note that it’s a donation, to: Friends of the Forest Grove Library 2114 Pacific Ave. Forest Grove, OR 97116

Friends’ federal tax ID: 93-6089869