SOUTH ORANGE, NJ — Tonia Moore, president of Friends of the South Orange Library, recently announced a major donation to the library.
“Because of the generous participation of the community in our fundraising events throughout the year, the Friends of the SOPL are able to donate $10,000 to the adult and children’s book collections,” Moore said in a press release. “This represents lots of hard work on the part of our volunteers and members. We are very happy to be able to do this.”
Friends works to fund library programs and increase collections, in addition to increasing awareness of the educational, informational and cultural activities of the library. Its goal is to help strengthen the library’s relationship with this diverse community, its schools and business community, and to spread literacy throughout the world. It also funds the children’s and teens’ summer programs.
The Book Cage is a used bookstore on the mezzanine level of the library that is stocked with donated books sold at reasonable prices and that are tax-deductible — just ask for receipt. A holiday boutique in December and a book sale in June added funds to provide for the purchase of books and museum passes available at the library.
Donations of adult and children’s books enable the volunteers to stock four Little Free Libraries scattered around the village and the Cage. Friends has partnered with Better World Books, earning a percentage of its profits from worldwide sales of donated encyclopedias, user manuals, textbooks, children’s books and fiction, which can be placed in the Big Green Box behind the library at any time.
Friends sponsors a foreign film series with five specially selected films during the year. Filmmaker and educator Gerard Amsellem provides background and insights as well as cinematographic techniques. Part 4 of the series will be “A Special Day,” the 1977 film starring Sophia Loren and Marcello Mastroianni, on Thursday, March 30, from 7 to 9 p.m. in the library community meeting room on the lower level.
For more information about Friends, call the library at 973-762-0230, send an email to friends@sopl.org, or consult www.friendsofsopl.org.
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