This year's guest speaker is Leslie Brody, University of Redlands professor of creative writing and author of Undercover with Louise Fitzhugh, the author of Harriet the Spy.
The President's Report, 2022 Annual Budget, and the Board Nominations will be presented. These documents are available on the Friends websitehere
As a member of the Friends board for the past five years, Rebecca McCurdy has served as the Publicity & Marketing committee chair and most recently, Vice President. Following the annual meeting on June 6th, she will become the new President. We asked Rebecca for her thoughts on the focus of the Friends and her memories of the library.
What do you see as the Friends' top areas of focus as the library emerges from a year spent mostly closed due to the pandemic? We are focusing on fundraising. While the library was closed to in-person services, many of the expenses the Friends help fund continued. Our three sales at the Contemporary Club and Saturday bag sales were quite successful. This month we increased the hours the Bookstore is open, are continuing to build our catalog of books for sale on the Amazon storefront (www.amazon.com/shops/friendsofaksmiley) and the Silent Auction is back. Our membership fell off a bit during the closure, but we are seeing a nice increase now.
Members of the Friends share a love of A.K. Smiley Public Library and books. What do you remember about the first time you visited our library?I don’t remember the first time I visited the library. However, my first real job was across the street at the General Telephone office. I used to regularly walk over to the library to check out books.
Do you have a favorite spot or area of the library?I love standing in the lobby and looking at the big rose window. I've taken a ridiculous number of photos of it. I also love the basement! It’s this amazing, kind of spooky space—makes me feel like I’m in one of those novels about castles with the secret rooms beneath.
The Friends welcome new board members Marie De Lange, Katherine Gifford, andKathy Rosenfeld. We will be introducing them in next month's newsletter!
Bookstore hours as of June 1st:
Monday CLOSED
Tuesday 11:30 am - 5:30 pm
Wednesday 11:30 am - 5:30 pm
Thursday 11:30 am - 5:30 pm
Friday 10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Saturday 10:30 am - 4:30 pm
Sunday CLOSED
Can't make it in to our used bookstore at the library? Visit the Friends of AK Smiley Bookstore on Amazon!
Click here to see our great selection of books!
