- Who are the Friends of the West Tisbury Library?
- About the Friends of the West Tisbury Library
- The Book Sale
- DONATE
The Friends raise money to support library needs and amenities beyond the annual town budget funds. Membership donations and book sale proceeds have allowed the Friends to build additions, renovate indoor and outdoor spaces, provide furnishings, flooring, shelving, as well as planning funds for future needs, landscaping, and the required pre-construction funds not included in the most recent State grant. All these enhance the library experience for our patrons.
THIS IS WHAT FRIENDS ARE FOR!
From funding to planning to hands-on volunteer work, there are countless ways (large and small) in which the Friends make our library more comfortable, attractive and complete. The Friends underwrite the color copier, museum passes, this very website and advertising for library events. Some of the other library functions the Friends have supported:
The Summer Reading Program. Our summer reading programs, for kids and adults, encourages a love of shared reading. Tee shirts and tote bags, with special logos, are awarded. Friends supply Halloween hayrides, publication-day celebrations for authors, concerts and lectures and monthly artists receptions.
Staff Training. A modern library serves as a community center, communications hub and a magnet for continuing education, along with more traditional functions of preserving and promoting the written word. The Friends help pay for up-to-date staff training as library services are constantly redefined.
Library Materials. Over the years, the Friends have donated additional funds to supplement town budget requests toward the purchase of new library books, DVDs, museum passes and other materials.
Planning and Construction. The West Tisbury Library has Martha’s Vineyard’s largest materials collection and the Island’s highest rate of circulation. Whenever the library has needed more space for collections, activities and displays, better accommodations for young adults and researchers, a place for lectures, films and presentations, the Friends provided the needed funds to get these projects “off the ground.” As the 2014 rebuilding evolved, Friends paid for pre-construction requirements, landscape planning and some of the furnishings.
The Friends support special craft projects.
OPPORTUNITIES
Much of what the Friends do for the library comes in the form of financial support made possible through the annual membership appeal and the summer book sale. However, the Friends help in other ways, too.
Volunteering isn’t just shelving books. The Friends are always looking for new members with diverse talents and skills. If you can handle a camera, please photograph a library activity for on-going publicity. A batch of favorite cookies for a library event or providing inspiration for a public program—the Board of Directors welcomes you interest, expertise and willingness to volunteer. The annual book sale requires many volunteer hours to sort, price, move tables, put up signs, take out trash and staff the checkout lines. The month of July, into early August, is the peak demand time for book sale volunteers.
The Friends of the West Tisbury Library can be reached at:
PO Box 905,
West Tisbury, MA 02575
With thousands of titles the annual book sale draws hundreds of avid readers every year.
Halloween would not be the same without the Friends making possible the annual hayride.
May 30, 2023, book donations beginning June 1st, 2023 at the shed at the West Tisbury Elementary School!
Children’s and Young Adults’ Books for Sale: Beginning on Monday, June 4, the Friends of the West Tisbury Library will begin selling lightly used children’s and young adult books in the Friends room on the lower level of the library. Over the winter, the Friends installed new wooden bookshelves along the outer wall of the room for this purpose.
Books are priced using colored dots on the outer cover: red dots are $1; green $2; neon orange $3; and dark blue $5.
Payment is on an honor system in either cash or by check made out to FWTL. Payment should be deposited in the plastic cash box in the Friends room. Bookshelves will be restocked at least once every week.
Summer Book Sale is Back! The Friends of the West Tisbury Library, through the generosity of Tilton Tents, will be returning to the West Tisbury School in a slightly different venue this July. A 40’ x 100’ tent located in the parking lot to the left of the school with the sale taking place during the week of July 23. If you are interested in volunteering, please send an email to westtislibraryfriends@gmail.com. More details about the sale to come.
The Friends of the West Tisbury Library are looking for volunteers to help sort books or work at their book sale. If you are interested please email friendsofwtl@gmail.com.
The Friends of the West Tisbury Library are seeking donations of lightly-used, recently published books for the pre-holiday book sale. We are accepting cookbooks, fiction, non-fiction, and children’s books. If you have books you wish to donate, please bring them to the Friends’ sheds at the West Tisbury school. If they are being left outside the shed, please be sure that they are in a weatherproof plastic bag.
Donate at the Library or by mailing:
PO Box 905,
West Tisbury, MA 02575
Visit the FOUNDATION’S FACEBOOK PAGE
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The West Tisbury Library Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit 501(c)3 Foundation, EIN 27-1785670. Donations are tax-deductible to the extent allowable by law.