In an effort to promote literacy, the Friends’ Book Sales receive and recycle hundreds of books to groups within the local community — notably, children’s books for childcare centers, large print for MARC (The Monroe County Association for ReMARCable Citizens) readers, and elementary school books for Boys & Girls Club readers. Through these donated books, the Friends create meaningful partnerships with many local non-profit services.

Friends Board member and volunteer Betty Darst recently introduced the library to Inez Martin, the child development center of Wesley House in Key West. The childcare center serves 90 infants through pre-kindergarten children. Darst convened the four key players:  Library Branch Senior Director Kim Rinaldi, Children’s Library Associates Riona Campbell and Emily Kovacs, and Christine Patterson, Director of the Early Childhood programs at Wesley House. Patterson now holds an institutional library card for Inez Martin, which allows her to check out collections from the Children’s Room that inform and complement their early childhood learning curriculum. In addition, Darst’s friends contributed $500 in honor of her birthday to purchase new books for Inez Martin. The library covered them in plastic which will preserve them for several years of daily use by small children.

Volunteers Demaris Edwards and Betsy Moore selected and distributed 300 books this past year from the unsold book sales and donated them to the local Boys & Girls Club to support their summer reading programs. That led to children and their parents registering for new library cards.

Finally, a book sale volunteer, Pat Nolan, collects large print books for her MARC clients. By using the online library catalog and searching by the keywords “large print books,” she is able to access the local collection of 200 books.