By Corinne Smith
Recent reports of a funding gap for capital projects in Ottawa might delay plans for a new library, but future fundraisers could learn a lesson or two from volunteers raising money at the main branch.
The Friends’ Bookshop, tucked away on the third floor of the Metcalfe branch, sells donated books, tapes and discarded library materials, turning the money over to the Ottawa library.
The bookstore is the flagship operation of Friends of the Ottawa Public Library Association. Beverly Rix, former president of the volunteer group and current library board member, says about 10,000 volunteer hours drive the bookstore’s operation.
“It’s like running a second-hand bookstore,” says Rix, adding the bookstore is open for business six days a week, 52 weeks a year.
Volunteers log hours as front sales persons, sorting and pricing books, or balancing the books. Art Read, the assistant treasurer, looks after receipts for the association account. “In 2000, we raised a total of $55,188.09” says Read. “That’s after our expenses, which totalled $629.”
Profits are used in library acquisitions, such as extra materials, reading materials for the blind, and videos, to name a few, says Rix.
“The association responds to requests from the library. The library comes and says, ‘we need this, can you give us this?’ If we have the cash on hand, we will,” she says.
“The bookstore makes a great deal more than it used to. When the bookstore opened, it was just a cubbyhole,” says Wendy Node, a volunteer with the association since 1986.
“There’re so many good deals here, books from the library eventually make their way up to the bookstore,” says Node, who volunteers as a front sales person Wednesday afternoons.
Gloria Ingram, a volunteer since 1991, says she sees potential for growth. “People come to the bookstore, because their friends tell them. But many people don’t know we’re up here.”
Her solution? “It’s advertising that it needs.”
Rix says funds raised by the association never make up for any funding cuts by the city. But the bookstore profits generated at the main branch, and other used book sales contribute about $100,000 to library acquisitions every year, she says.
The association’s activities spread beyond the library’s confines, to city hall. Rix says “The Friends advocate on behalf of the library, in front of city council, for the budget.”
“Friends of the Library was involved in raising public awareness about the library’s needs for funding,” Read says.
The association’s services might be called on again for the new main library. “Fundraising options are not a new thing for the Ottawa library. When we built and renovated other libraries, we always looked at fundraising,” says Barbara Clubb, the city librarian.
At its meeting on Sept. 10, the library board voted to create a library foundation for future fundraising.
“Maybe they should have a big funding drive for the library, and invite people to donate, just like the art centres do,” Node suggests.