Welcome

Art on the Walls

Featured Artist:
Kevin Hosseini

April 12 through June 30, 2013

Enjoy the art of a fellow Carpinterian when you visit our Used Book Store (on Carp Ave next to the Carp Library ).

Under the expert guidance of Tara O'Reilly, our wonderful library constantly labors to re-invent itself, continuing as a source of the written word, while burgeoning as a community center for adults and children alike.

All, however, is not nearly as "hunky dory" as it appears on the surface to be. Since our successful Save Our Library campaign, it seems that a perception has come into the consciousness of our community that our library is on sound footing financially. The reality is much different.

Our State no longer provides funding for public libraries. Our county provides a miserly $5.98 per capita, which translated for this fiscal year to $97,451, which is merely 40% of the money required to meet the budget, while our Friends organization (thanks in large measure to your generosity) provides 25% ($61,534) of the money to meet this budget, plus an additional $4,722 to pay for the Summer Reading Program "performance" events.

Another perception that persists is that the use of our bookstore is free. This is false. We pay the City $1,050 per month ($12,600) in rent (which is very generous of the City, since the fair market rent for this space would be much more).

One way to ensure the ongoing viability of our library would be to approve a relatively small parcel tax or increase in the local sales tax to be used solely for paying the expenses of operating our library. Our Board of Directors is examining this issue to see if a new community based organization should be set up to manage a campaign to put such a measure on the June 2014 ballot. If you would be willing to help out in any way with such an effort, please let me know.

Thank you all very much for your continuing support.

It is remarkable and gratifying how much and how well so many of you contribute already to the success of our FOL Bookstore, so that we can fulfill our mission to help financially support and advocate for our wonderful library. Thank you all very much!

There are several areas where we could use more of your help. For example:

1. We have started a new Board committee, Community Diversity and Outreach, chaired by Nadia Van Wingerden, which will seek ways to help involve our Latino community and meet its needs. Tara O'Reilly is on this committee, and we need more members. If you would like to serve on this committee, or just help out, please contact Nadia at nadiavw@mac.com. Speaking Spanish would be a plus.
2. We need someone to be our Historian, and to collect and preserve FOL news items and the like. If interested, contact Patty Manuras at pattymanuras@yahoo.com.
3. We can always use more help with our Newsletter, coming up with ideas, writing articles, mailing it, etc. If interested, contact Patty.
4. If you would like to help with our website (friendsofcarpinterialibrary.org), please contact Giti White at giti_white@hotmail.com, and she will discuss with you ways you might be able to help.
5. To provide benefits to you, our members, and to raise money for our library, we put on several events each year. If you would like to help, please contact our Events Chair, Kris McGuire, at mcguiremarketing@aol.com.
6. Giti and the rest of her committee need help on the first Saturday of each month with our Lawn Sales of excess books, especially to move and set up books for the sale and put everything away at the end. Please contact her if you can help.
7. And, as always, spread the word. The more Friends we have like you, the better able we will be to support our library.

1. Heidi Bautista, with input from Giti White and Jean Bailard, has done a great job for us in improving and updating her initial design of our website. We expect to officially launch it within the next few weeks.
2. On May 14, the City presented us with a Resolution honoring the founding of our Friends of the Library organization on May 23, 1967, and on May 23rd we had a wonderful celebration of our 45th anniversary at the Bookstore (see photo below). Hope you were there.
3. Our Arts Committee is very pleased to announce that the next artist to show her paintings in our Bookstore will be our very own, critically acclaimed Whitney Brooks Abbott. Her wonderful "Rincon from the Bluffs" mural can be seen on the "Kilovac" building at 550 Linden Avenue.
4. Our half-price "Lawn Sales," which raise valuable funds for helping to run our library, are now held on the first Saturday of every month.
5. Please join us at our Annual Meeting at 11am on Saturday, June 16. Our guest speaker will be well-known, local non-fiction author and journalist, Ann Louise Bardach, whose book "Cuba Confidential" was named one of the Ten Best Books of 2002 by the Los Angeles Times.