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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Book Sale Gold by Stacy

Stillwater Public Library Book Sale will run April 19-22.  20,000 items priced .25 to $1.00.

We hear the stories all the time about people finding treasures at a library booksale.  When I say “treasures,” I don’t mean sentimentally invaluable items like my mint copy of “Spotlight on Scott Baio” which I will savor forever.  No—I’m talking about items actually worth lots and lots of money.  Do any of these types of treasures pop up at our library booksale?  With the Spring Used Book Sale coming up April 19-22, I decided to find out.



Asking around, I found one person who was lucky enough to snap up a first edition copy of “In Cold Blood” by Truman Capote.  I also found someone who found three early edition Hardy Boy books with original dust jackets which were then sold for several hundred dollars by a collector.  The really big find, though, was when someone here found a true, self-published, first edition of “A Time to Kill” by John Grisham that later sold for several thousand dollars!



I also actually had an experience with finding a treasure too.  It was a Saturday afternoon, and I was able to leisurely stroll through the sale handling book after book after book.  There happened to be a fairly decrepit copy of a Nancy Drew still on the table (not decrepit in the valuable way, just the falling apart way).  Being an avid Drewist my whole life, I decided to add it to my purchase pile.  When I got home and leafed through my books, I found a folded up set of Nancy Drew Fan Club papers from around the 50s or early 60s, with a club membership card and everything.  It was an exciting find and another Drewist offered me a little something in the high double digits for the items (my eyebrows are wagging as I say “high double digits”).  But these items are sentimentally valuable to me, so I decided to hang on to them.


Having found a treasure of my own and hearing these stories from others keeps me going back for more.  If you want to treasure hunt at the library book sale, please come on by!  And if you need more info on spotting valuable books, checkout “Collecting Books: Instant Expert” by Matthew Budman or Marie Tedford’s “Official Price Guide to Collecting Books.”  Get info on book sale hours and prices at http://library.stillwater.org/sale.htm.




Stillwater, OK. 

Friday, April 13, 2012

7 ways to celebrate your library by Stacy



Even princesses need computer time @ the Library!

It’s National Library Week!  It’s a great time to show our appreciation for everything the Library gives Stillwater—technology, opportunity, knowledge, ideas, entertainment, literacy, meeting space, opportunity, dreams, answers and community! 

The celebration started Monday during Snapshot Day.  It was amazing!  Over 250 people took the time to tell us how the library impacts their lives and over 100 let us take a snapshot!  There is still plenty of time for you to get involved in the celebration both this week and next!

Daddies and daughters @ the Library!

1.  Come vote for your favorite National Library Week bookmark.  We have 22 spectacular entries and you can vote for your favorite with your spare change (or bills!).  Winning bookmarks will be distributed throughout the library later in the month.  Proceeds from the vote go to the Library Trust which helps us purchase things like the auto repair and testing study databases.

2.  See how Stillwater celebrated Snapshot Day at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cityofstillwater/sets/72157629780166135/.  

Wondertorium brings more "young at art" kits @ the Library!
3.  Go to our website this week at http://library.stillwater.org/ and tell us why the library is important to YOU. 

4.  Visit the UsedBook Sale April19-22.  Your purchases allow us to buy new, updated books, provide children’s summer programming and buy equipment for the public to use.

5.  Help our wonderful “One Book, One Community: Stillwater Salutes Will Rogers” go out on a bang!  Join all of Stillwater in watching Broadway star Lynette Bennett perform "Will Rogers' Romance with Betty andAmerica" at the Community Center, Friday, April 20 at 7:30 p.m.

Learning to sign during storytime @ the Library!
6.  Get your kids and grandkids involved with the library either by coming to study live tadpoles at Born to Do Science, Saturday, April 21 at 10 a.m. or by signing them up to read with our canine pals Simba, Molly or Sami.

7.  And OF COURSE there is no better way to show your appreciation than to USE your library and use it often!  Get a card, check out books, get information from our amazing, reliable databases and ask librarians to help you!

Stillwater, OK