To the Editor:

The Friends of the Potsdam Public Library is a volunteer group that supports the mission of our public library. We accept donations of good, used books and use them to stock our bookstore in the basement of the library.

We also hold several yearly book sales and sell high quality donated books on Amazon. Finally, we send off unsold books to a consignment service in exchange for a percentage of their sales value. All of the money we make in these ventures goes to support the library and its programs.

In addition to this work for the library, we also serve the wider community in a variety of ways. We donate good quality books to organizations like The Holiday Fund, the neighborhood center, the Canton-Potsdam hospital and the VA hospital in Syracuse. We also give away books to informal lending libraries operating in some of the smaller villages around Potsdam.

None of this gets done without a great deal of effort, and, at present, that effort is being shouldered by a smaller and smaller group of people. There is much that the Friends would like to do in future, but, right now, we are simply looking for people to help us maintain our present level of services.

Volunteers are especially needed on Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. to help price, sort, cull and shelve books at our bookstore. A strong back, a love of books and a good sense of humor are all the qualifications that are necessary!

If you shop at our store on Saturdays, consider volunteering to work. If you haven’t visited our store, please come and take a look and decide to help us out. Or, if it is more convenient, just leave your contact information with one of the library staff at the front desk and someone from the Friends will call you.

Our little bookstore is a real resource for readers and book lovers of all ages. Please help us to keep it alive and growing!

Lou Ann Lange

Potsdam