President’s Letter	33rd Annual Book Sale	Library Manager’s Update
Volunteer Opportunities	Special Price Books	Hawthorne Reading Program
Membership Renewal	DVD Rentals	Annual Meeting
FOL Board	Download Newsletter

Spring Brings Many Opportunities to Be More Active

For the next few months, our organization will be busy planning and hosting several events for you to enjoy. First up will be our annual book sale, held March 1, 2, and 3 at the Vet Center on Grand Ave. We have an extra large supply of books this year. Keep reading for more information in this newsletter.

Then on May 3rd our annual membership meeting will be held at the SLO Country Club. We have arranged for a local author to speak. The food is delicious, the company is interesting, and the presentation will be delightful.

Finally, there is always a need for volunteers, as both Kristine Tardiff, SLO Library Manager, and Carolyn Carotenuti, SLOFOL Volunteer coordinator, will mention in their sections of this newsletter. Because of the several rounds of budget cuts your help is especially needed. Please consider volunteering once a week for any of the tasks listed. There is more to volunteering than shelving books. We are bound to have a task that will inter-est you! The SLOFOL could use help with maintaining our web site. If you have a skill in that area and are willing to help, please contact me at 234-3384.

Have a lovely spring and I hope to see you at these events.

Laura C. Lehmann,

President

March 1st, 2nd and 3rd, 2012 Once again the Sale will be at the Veterans Memorial Building on Grand Avenue in San Luis Obispo, and the hours are the same as usual:Thursday, March 1st  6:00 p.m. – 9:00 p.m. (members only, with memberships sold at the door)
Friday, March 2nd 10:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m.
Saturday, March 3rd  9:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

Volunteers will leap into action on set-up day, Wednesday, February 29th.There will be a large number of items for sale: 8000 audio-visual items and 20,000 books. There are especiallylarge numbers of children’s books, and books on literature and history. There will be a very attractive collectionof Special Price books. (See accompanying article by Bill Cochran.)The Book Sale is not only the major fundraiser for the Friends of the Library, it is an important community eventthat provides excellent books and A-V items at very reasonable prices. The keys to the success of the Sale arethe large number of volunteers – over 100 last year, and the large number of donors.If you would like to volunteer or donate, please call Paul Murphy at 544-3033.

Volunteers NeededRecent changes in the library have increased our need for volunteers. The SLO Library is unique in the county in that we have a two-story building and need staff to assist customers and maintain safety, especially on the sec-ond floor. Until quite recently, we used to have both a Reference and Audio-Visual desk on the second floor but due to shrinking staff levels, we had to close the Audio-Visual desk as a service point. That has not diminished our need to assist customers in the Audio-Visual area or in the computer lab, just adjacent to the AV area. Currently, we are using interns and volunteers to assist in that area but it’s not enough. We need more help. If you are interested in helping with shelving in the AV area and also assisting in the computer lab such as answer-ing basic questions about the computers, minor issues regarding e-mail or Internet access, and printing, we’d love to hear from you. You can pick up a Volunteer Application at the first floor information desk and an inter-view will be arranged with our volunteer coordinator, Heidi. We do ask for at least a two-hour commitment per week. We want to offer the same high quality customer service as we did when we were fully staffed so any help you can offer is greatly appreciated. Also, as we plan to move forward with our public art project, we will be looking for volunteers to assist us with some minor fund raising and possibly helping with a fund raising event in the spring. We’ll keep you posted as to what the event will be and when, possibly a wine and cheese event with a silent auction. We are working with the city and ArtsObispo to make this goal of ours a reality. How beau-tiful the library will look once the project is completed. Thank you.

At last, a new front desk at the SLO Library! Thank you Friends for your $50,000 donation to its construction. We had our self check area up and running in April but a few construction delays held back installing our new desk, which we all think is beautiful and a wonderful replacement for the ‘orange dinosaur’. We can better see all our customers and also move in and out with ease. We have discovered that the new blue carpet under the desk takes a bit of vacuuming but we are happy to do it. Our customers love it and find it very modern and classy. Next up, our public art project. ArtsObispo recently lost their lease and are moving into the Ludwig Center, with no display space so we are in discussion with them to display some of their artwork here in the library. They are also interested in our public art project so hopefully we’ll have good news soon about our being able to move forward with that. The city already promised us $35,000 matching funds and we are busy trying to raise our half. We think a building dedicated to celebrating the local arts will bring in more and more visitors who will then more likely support our efforts overall in the county. Beautiful buildings bring in more customers and thus more support. It’s a win-win all around.

Our Youth Services Coordinator, Margaret Kensinger-Klopfer, has returned from her six-month maternity leave and has jumped right back in the swing of things. She has done another excellent job of taking on the Miossi sci-ence programs. Our first program was January 28 with a program on How Do Animals Learn: discover the tech-nology of dog training. We also have programs scheduled for February through May as well on such topics as earthquakes and the science of ice cream making. Yum! Our youth services folks are also busy preparing for the next summer reading program, Dream Big – Read for kids and Own the Night for teens. Our regular competi-tion for designing the summer reading bags through Cloud Star went very well this year and the winners are Shantel Rowe for the teen bag and Rebecca Brockway.

The adults are also jumping in with a reading theme this winter called Hot Reads for Cold Nights. Read 9 books and receive prizes and surprises! You can sign up at the SLO Library Reference desk. The program runs through April 1. You can see all our events at our home page at www.slolibrary.org.  We also are on Facebook at www.facebook.com/slocountylibrary.

Thank you Friends!

Kristine Tardiff,

Library Manager, SLO City Library

Fresh and Easy is opening a new store in San Luis Obispo on Broad St. As part of their community commitment, they will donate $1000 to a local non profit. Please go to their web site at www.freshandeasy.com and nominate the San Luis Obispo Friends of the Library.

Volunteers are always needed at the Library’s new self-checkout which has become very popular, as it shortens check-out time and lines. Volunteers are still being sought for shelving, filing and other tasks, under the direction of volunteer coordinator, Heidi LoCascio. This helps counter the continuing budget shrinkage.Thank You,

Carolyn Carotenuti

Books donated for the annual sale often include unexpected treasures, and this year is no exception. For fans of the off-beat, Robert Crumb’s Handbook and several volumes of Sketchbook will be available. Crumb, a founder of the underground comic movement, created Fritz the Cat, and his works are becoming highly collectible.Those interested in local history will find Pathways to Historic Places in the Area by Nicholson and Loughran, and Parade of our Golden Years, a collection of early photographs of SLO County, signed by Louisiana Dart, well-known SLO personality and the then curator of the County Historical Museum.

Classics are represented by John Bunyan’s Pilgrim’s Progress, an attractive edition published by the American Baptist Publication Society (c. 1852), and John Milton’s Poetical Works, also in an attractive binding (c. 1880). A 1901 edition of Robinson Crusoe is available, illustrated with 80 black and white engravings and four color plates.

Read Welsh? There is Jemeima Niclas, an unusual slim paperback printed in Welsh and signed by the author Alun Ifans. History buffs will likely want The Oil War (1926) by Anton Mohr, a description of the early strug-gle to gain control of oil supplies as naval ships began their transition from coal, and What about the Airship? (1938) by Charles Rosendahl, on the advantages of dirigibles for military use.

Other unusual finds include The Hydraulic Gold Miner’s Manual (1897) by T. G. S. Kirkpatrick; a first edition of Zane Grey’s Tales of Tahitian Waters (1931); a signed copy of the first edition of Ray Bradbury’s Yestermorrow (1991); a first edition of Seven Plus Seven, Mysterious Life – Rituals in Bali (1971), with its foreword by Margaret Mead and signed by the author Katharane Mersho; an early travel book Rambles in Sunny Spain (1889) by Fred Ober; and a handsome printing of Washington Irving’s Bracebridge Hall (1896), illustrated by Arthur Rackham. Other treasures will likely turn up.

Bill Cochran

A democratic society depends upon an informed and educated citizenry.
–Thomas Jefferson

By this time in the school year, FOL volunteers have built good working relationships with “their” students.Students’ reading skills are progressing from this opportunity to read one-on-one with FOL volunteers, adultswith an obvious love of reading. It’s making a difference in the classroom and in our community.  FOL volun-teers are greatly appreciated by the Hawthorne teachers whose comments include the following: “My volunteer is here every Wed. and working out beautifully! Thank you.”“I’m extremely pleased with my volunteers. They are reliable, positive, helpful and sincere.” “My “friends” are pretty consistent and work well with the students………no problems.” “Everything is working out nicely. We really appreciate all of the volunteers!”The program can always use more volunteers, so consider joining us for a fun and worthwhile purpose. No prior classroom experience is required. More information about the program can be found at https://oldsite.slofol.org by clicking on HAWTHORNE READING PROGRAM. If you would like to learn more or to volunteer, please contact the program coordinator via the email there or contact any FOL Board member.

If you have not renewed your 2012 membership, please remit payment along with the renewal found on the printable copy of this newsletter ( See link below). Please note any changes from Last year’s member records and your interest in volunteering at Friend’s functions. If payment is received before February 1, you will be mailed a Membership Card for entry to the Book Sale members-only preview night on Thursday March 1st.

Missed that new movie when it was in town? Come to the SLO library and check out our new DVD rental collection. The best part is it’s only $2.00 a week and there are no holds. Some of the newest titles that we have available include: Moneyball, which was nomi-nated for a Golden Globe, 50/50, Drive, Real Steel, The Last Lions, The Guard and Margin Call. The DVD’s are available on a first come first served basis, so take a look and find something new to watch this week.

May 3 is the Friend’s Annual Meeting and luncheon to be held at the San Luis Obispo Country Club. A social hour will start at 11:00 a.m., followed by a short business meeting. After a lunch of grilled salmon salad, our guest author will speak and have his books for your perusal.

President	Laura Lehmann
1st VP	Jane Batterson
2nd VP	Anne Sinsheimer
Treasurer	Suzanne Fryer
Recording Secretary	Shauna Kruse
Corresponding Secretary	Ken Barclay
Parliamentarian	Prisila Johnson
Board Members	Carolyn Carotenuti
	Leslie Goetz
	Sally Hillis
	Jaime Juarez
	Marybeth Lucas
	Dawnna McDougall
	Paul Murphy
	Irene Ray
SLO Library Manager	Kristine Tardiff