Category: Spotlight

Spotlight

VOLUNTEER WITH FRIENDS OF THE LIBRARY

Are you retired, have time on your hands, want to meet and spend some time with interesting (well most of the time) people who are passionate about their library? WE NEED YOU IN OUR SORTING ROOM. What is a sorting room you ask! Well, our sorting room takes in all the books and other types of media, including sheet music which is donated by wonderful giving people or discarded from the library, scans the material for it’s current location on the list of desirable media, then they distribute these materials where they think we will be able to raise the most funds to support our library system. The sorting room is dusty and full of who knows what so this means you don’t have to dress up, you may come as slouchy as you wish. We provide you with enough snacks to feed Paul Bunyan and you get to have lunch with those “sometimes interesting people”. We have every kind of human in that sorting room you can think of, retired doctors, teachers, business owners, and if you can’t find someone you can relate to then, is this our fault? We need you at least a couple of hours a week. You may select your hours from 10:00am – 2:00pm on Mondays – Fridays.

So get out of that doldrum you have got yourself into and make your way to volunteer where you will get first pick of books to read, music to listen to, movies to watch, spend some time with some most of the time interesting people, and help us keep our library system #1 in the country! You will love it!!! To volunteer or for more information call Ashley at 901-415-2845!

Spotlight

New Storefront At Second Editions

Your favorite gently-used bookstore has received a facelift! Second Editions Bookstore, located in the lobby of the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library (3030 Poplar Ave.) will soon have a new look that’s bound to attract attention. The new storefront, designed by longtime graphic artist Lonnie Robinson, will be installed in October 2019.

Too many people enter the library and do not realize that there is a bookstore there. We hope to increase awareness so that more people will visit, shop and raise revenue by 10 to 20 percent.

Funds raised through Second Editions Bookstore will directly support programs at all 18 Memphis Public Library locations citywide.

With a clear objective in mind, Robinson said he began to translate the Friends’ goals into an attractive and eye-catching design.

The existing storefront of Second Editions Bookstore will soon be a thing of the past, as plans for installing a new design are finalized.

“I began to look at storefronts around the country and eventually found one in North Hollywood,” Robinson said. “I wanted to make the entrance grander but not over the top, and bolder so that when you enter the library, you couldn’t miss it. I really wanted it to have an appearance of something new and more inviting, and to include a floor graphic to make better use of the space.”

An avid book lover himself, Robinson said he was always taught the value of a book.

“My mother and grandmother taught me that a library is a building that you just should not pass. So, it makes me feel great to know that I’m supporting Libraries, Friends and the citizenry,” Robinson said.

Hoping to encourage readers not to pass by either, Robinson commented on the value that shoppers will find on the other side of Second Editions’ doors. “When we hear the term ‘used,’ we think ‘downgrade.’ I always laugh to hear someone all a book ‘used’ because, when you think about a book, it is an upgrade that it has been used. It is at its greatest value when it is used; when more people are reading, it’s a win-win for everyone involved!”