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Francisco Lovato is the author of the biography Survivor a tribute to his father a survivor of the WWII Bataan Death March. Francisco's father died a few months ago but his story lives on through this book. The program will include slides as well as some moving songs. The evening promises to bring history alive through a very personal account of resiliance and sacrifice. Light refreshments will be served.

Questions? Call 530-265-1407 or email: friends@friendsofthenevadacountylibraries.org

Click here to download a flyer about the event.

Mark your calendars and shine up your walking shoes for the Walk-a-Mile for Literacy in downtown Grass Valley. Participants take a comfortable stroll through the downtown Grass Valley shopping area, stopping along the way to enjoy educational table displays about literacy. Registration fee includes a Walk-a-Mile for Literacy Tote Bag. Donations above and beyond are accepted and appreciated. Registrations will be accepted on walk day.

This event is intended to raise awareness of the challenges faced by adults with low literacy skills and raise funds for student tutoring materials in our free literacy program. This is not a race…it is a comfortable walk in support of our literacy program, Read Up!.

The Nevada County Libraries are gearing up for this year’s exciting Summer Reading Program! The theme is “Make a Splash – Read!” and encompasses everything water-related, from fish to rivers to the ocean to pirates.

The Fair folks are providing lots of giveaways for Summer Reading Program participants, including bookmarks, “Fair Bucks” coupons for discounted admission, and vouchers for free ride tickets. Throughout the summer, kids will be invited to decorate a picture of a book that will hang on a book tree in a special Nevada County Libraries display in the children’s exhibit pavilion of the Fair. The Truckee Library will also participate in this fun activity.

Sign-ups start June 21st at all library branches! A Kick-Off Event featuring Puppet Art Theater will be held at the Madelyn Helling Library on Tuesday, June 29, at 3:00 PM and at the Grass Valley Library on Wednesday, June 30, at 10:30 AM. The Celebration Party featuring Magic by Bill will be held on Wednesday, July 21, at the Grass Valley Library at 10:30 AM and at the Madelyn Helling Library at 1:30 PM.

The library is so grateful for the generosity of the Friends of the Library. FOL funds the entire Summer Reading Program, including the performers and the prizes for participation. Thank you!

April 1st came and dealt us a mighty blow! Our budget as part of the library was eliminated, and was replaced, in a small part, by funding from the Private Industry Council of Butte County, and a continuing grant from the State Library.

We wind down this fiscal year, and will enter the next, with a 63% reduction in budget, and a 75% reduction in staff hours. Some of our volunteers have stepped forward and are a tremendous help. Some of us are working more uncompensated hours than before to get the job done.

Aside from the budget woes, we have had a good year of helping adults who struggle to improve their reading, writing and math skills. Our volunteer tutors are the mainstay of the program. Their desire to help others is a joy to see.

The Tenth Annual Gold Rush Book Fair, produced by the Friends of the Nevada County Libraries as a fund raiser, was held on Saturday, May 15, 2010 at the Nevada County Fairgrounds.

After setting up on Friday, 35 dealers from all over the West opened for business to a waiting crowd. Books of every type and on every subject were offered: vintage science fiction magazines, scholarly treatises on obscure historical events, vintage mysteries, signed modern bestsellers, finely bound, art and illustrated volumes, books on Beatniks, Conquistadors, gold miners and robber barons. Books of every size from 30 pound art books to one ounce miniatures were exhibited and sold. Prices ranged from $2.00 to $20,000.

Old West Books of Colorado Springs, Colorado traveled the longest distance to attend, and a close second was Ken Sanders Books of Salt Lake City, Utah. Former Nevada County resident B.W. Henry kept his attendance record by driving down from Florence, Oregon to set up shop. Booksellers are not only great readers they are great talkers so much information about books was exchanged. Nine local booksellers exhibited at the Fair proving once again that Nevada County is the most literate small community in the West.

PBA Galleries of San Francisco offered book and ephemera appraisals to the public and many took advantage of this service. Some excitement was generated when a book worth in excess of $75,000 was pulled out of a box. As in the case of the nine pound gold nugget, all details will remain a secret.

The Friends hosted a well attended party Friday evening at The Doris Foley Historical Library for all the dealers prior to the GRBF annual dinner. Dealers were offered the chance to purchase books at this event. We were truly surprised us at how much we sold. Thanks, Desmond and Bookies.

Volunteers from the Friends performed most of the work setting up and manning the Fair and all the proceeds will go to support our Libraries. The Friends also sold donated books at the Fair for the fourth year and broke all previous sales records.

Thanks to the Union newspaper and all the community organizations that support the Fair and the Friends of the Nevada County Libraries.

A good time was had by all the readers that exhibited, worked and attended the Fair. We have already reserved the space for the Fair next year.

The Friends have for many years raised money in order to provide the Nevada County Libraries with funding for materials, equipment, and programs. During 2009, the Friends raised close to $60,000 by selling books and other media and through your generous donations and memberships.

Last year, we donated close to $60,000 for materials, children’s programs, Nevada County Reads, the Read Up Literacy program and operations support for the Doris Foley Library for Historical Research and other important expenses.

Over the past months many local folks have come out to support our libraries. Jeff Ackerman, publisher and editor of The Union newspaper, started a campaign to “Save Our Libraries”. A front page article, followed by other articles and sidebars continued to keep the campaign in front of readers. Information and links on The Union’s website also communicated about the campaign and gave people other ways to donate. So far the campaign has raised $53,000!!

Lew Sitzer, local educator and co-founder of the Nevada County TV (NCTV) station, stepped up to lead an effort to put on Library Aid, to raise money for the Friends. This joint collaboration between NCTV, the Friends of the Nevada County Libraries and many community volunteers was intended to help maintain the publicly funded and operated County Library system. It featured local authors and library lovers reading from their own works or from the locally published anthology, “Open to All: What the Library Means to Me.” Musical offerings, clips from local children’s programs, and testimonials about how literacy programs help individuals rounded out the program. The Feb 20 telethon raised approximately $8300, for the Friends.

The Grass Valley Elks dedicated their February Taco and Ice Cream Night to our Libraries and Papa Murphy’s has a coupon available at our libraries that guarantees 20% of the cost of a pizza will benefit the local libraries.

As part of the work to find ways to manage the Libraries within budget, the County has accepted the Friends proposal to operate the Doris Foley Library for Historical Research. Although all of the details have not been finalized, the Friends are planning to have the library open two days a week – Friday and Saturday, staffed with volunteer workers. More details will be published as they develop.

Are you looking for a good book and a place to discuss it? Consider joining the Friends Book Club. The group meets the last Wednesday of the month from 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 noon in the Community Room at the Helling Library. Here are the books the group will read and discuss in 2010:

The group takes a break in November and December. For more information, call (530) 273-5854.

Library Literacy Service Received Accreditation
by Alan Archer, Coordinator

Nevada County Library's Job Center