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--
Walter Cronkite Who
are the Friends? We are a group
of local citizens brought together by a love of libraries. This organization is
dedicated to generating increased awareness in the community of the extensive
resources of our facility and to support the Library in all its endeavors. We
plan to achieve this goal through membership dues, volunteer services to the
Library, and fund raising activities to augment the Township’s budget
allocation. All
persons interested in the services provided by the West Caldwell Public Library
and the purposes of our organization are eligible for membership in the Friends.
Membership is obtained by the payment of annual dues, renewable in January of
each year. Members are encouraged to participate actively in the committees of
the organization.
Activities
of the Friends of the West Caldwell Public Library We are fortunate to have a wonderful library. There are many ways that the Friends help enhance the library experience of its many patrons. The following is a partial list of activities performed by the Friends. 1. Providing refreshments at the “Friday Afternoon at the Movies” is a major ongoing project of the Friends. Coffee, tea, water, cookies and the ever popular popcorn are served at all the weekly movies. Since January 2006, we have served at about 90 movies and have probably popped well over 400 bags of popcorn. 2. The Friends also provide refreshments for many of the adult programs in the Community Meeting Room in the library. Recently, we provided cider, iced tea, cookies and cake at the musical concert by Joyful Noise. Refreshments are also provided to the finale of the children’s summer programs. 3. The Friends of the Library publish a quarterly newsletter, InfoBytes, which contains information on upcoming programs, news about the library, Friends news and the movie schedule. In between the quarterly newsletters, we mail out post cards to all members which list the new programs and information that did not appear in the previous InfoBytes. 4. The Friends provide a significant amount of the funding for programs in the library. While we have funded children’s programs in the past, including several programs by Kurt Gallagher, most of our recent support has been for adult programs. We have provided financial support for a number of library-initiated programs as well as presented programs on our own or in conjunction with the Historical Society of West Caldwell. Starting in March 2006, program topics have included: Horseneck
Riots 7-Session Genealogy Workshop 5. Funds are routinely approved for miscellaneous small items requested by the director. A big project in early 2006 was the replacement of the storage cases for the 2000 audio CD’s owned by the library. This not only was a significant expense, it required a number of volunteer hours to make the changeover. 6. The Friends have their Annual International Dinner in October. Previous years we featured Spanish and German cuisine. This year we are had Greek cuisine. 7. The Friends provide a “Books-to-Go” service to assist in delivery and pick-up of materials for those who cannot easily access our library. 8. The Friends also have a Magazine Exchange (located near the circulation desk) where you can share your finished periodicals with others and borrow new ones. 9. Many Friends participate in the Adopt-a-Shelf program. Although technically a library program, a number of our members participate and keep the books on the shelves in their proper sequence. 10. The Friends also support the ongoing efforts to upgrade the materials in the Local History and Genealogy Room. Currently a project is underway in conjunction with the Historical Society of West Caldwell to digitize a large number of local historical photographs and make them available electronically at the library and eventually available on-line. 11. We are always looking for new projects to improve our library. If you have any good ideas, join the Friends and share them with us. We can make a difference!
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