Marge Mingin and Gerald Sweeney
WEST ORANGE, NJ — The Friends of the West Orange Public Library will hold its first major book sale Oct. 1 and 2, offering more than 25,000 titles for purchase in an effort to raise funds for the library.
The “collector level” sale will feature a wide range of books spanning popular fiction, children’s stories, art compendiums, travel guides and more. The Friends Vice President Marge Mingin, who is managing the sale, said there is truly something for everyone.
And considering that all of the volumes will be priced between $1 and $3, Mingin said the sale represents a perfect opportunity to amass quite a collection.
“With the books that we have to offer, people can build their own little library that would rival Thomas Jefferson’s,” Mingin told the West Orange Chronicle in a Sept. 22 phone interview.
The sale comes after Mingin and numerous volunteers spent months sorting through the “overwhelming” number of books either donated or culled from the WOPL’s own collection. In handling the many titles, she said she was struck by the “excellent” condition in which she found them. The quality of their content is also enough to make any book lover swoon, and she pointed out that patrons can find several out-of-print “gems” in the history section that would cost hundreds more if purchased online.
The Friends hope to sell as many books as possible in order to clear out the library basement, where most of the selection has been stored for more than a decade after its removal from circulation. With the extra room, and with the money collected from the sale, Mingin said the WOPL intends to convert the basement into classroom and meeting space. In addition, she said it plans to fill the area with the latest technology, from laptops to SMART Boards.
Mingin said that such a space would be an asset to the WOPL, providing the library with enough room to finally offer English language classes to West Orange’s large immigrant population. She said the library could also rent the basement area to outside groups.
The new technology also can be used as essential teaching tools, Mingin said. As the former director of technology for the South Orange-Maplewood School District, she explained that information is becoming more and more digitized in today’s world, meaning that people without much computer knowledge — particularly senior citizens — are being left without access to resources that could otherwise be at their fingertips. But with multimedia classrooms, she said the WOPL will be able to teach them what they need to know.
And those are just a few ideas about how the space can be used.
“There’s really no limit to some of the things that can be done,” Mingin said. “But we’ve got to start somewhere, and creating the space is where we have to start.”
Friends President Gerald Sweeney is more than happy to help with the cause. The lifelong bibliophile is eagerly anticipating the book sale, telling the Chronicle that it is going to be “a day in heaven for me.”
The sale represents more than an opportunity to fundraise, though. As Sweeney pointed out, the event is the latest in a list of accomplishments the Friends have achieved in what he describes as the “year of the library.” These include raising approximately $2,000 after hosting a small book sale at the West Orange Street Fair, developing a guide to senior services and recently applying for a grant to fund middle school science, technology, engineering, art and math programs. The organization’s membership also continues to grow, he said, and has a total of 80 members since it relaunched in March.
Meanwhile, Sweeney said the Friends are planning the programs it will present next while continuing to strengthen the partnerships forged with other local groups such as the Downtown West Orange Alliance and the West Orange Hispanic Foundation. He said that his group is always looking for new members to better support the library.
“Unless people support it, you won’t get money, you won’t get appreciation and you won’t get the kinds of programs you want,” Sweeney said in a Sept. 23 phone interview.
One person who certainly wants to see the Friends continue to flourish is Library Director David Cubie, who called the library West Orange’s “cradle to grave” partner in education through the resources and programming it provides. Additionally, he said the library always seeks to meet the needs of the community, whether by providing computers for job searches or events for socializing.
But keeping up with the ever-changing needs of the township is not easy. And having an organization like the Friends raising money and awareness for the WOPL has been a “godsend,” Cubie said. He hopes residents will keep supporting the group, and told the Chronicle that anyone who cares about the WOPL should make a point of visiting the book sale. After all, he said, the community itself is what the library is trying to benefit.
“We want the community to be successful because the success of people in West Orange is the success of the West Orange Public Library,” Cubie said in a Sept. 23 phone interview, pointing out that those who use the library’s resources to find a job give back to the library by paying taxes. “It’s a virtuous cycle. The more we help the community, the more the community can help us.”
The book sale will run from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Oct. 1, and from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Oct. 2. For a list of prices, visit http://www.wopl.org/friendsevents.
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