Issue date: September 15, 1999
Every year, volunteers behind the community group Friends of the Menlo Park Library are faced with a challenge -- how to design the flow of traffic between aisles in the open-air, ad-hoc book store that is the Menlo Park Library's annual book fair to the browser's advantage.
This year's no different. The space engineers behind the book fair put everything they have into making sure the estimated 35,000 donated books are all seen and, of course, sold.
The two-day fair is open from 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 18, and continues from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Sunday, September 19, on the Menlo Park Library grounds and Council Chambers, at Ravenswood Avenue and Laurel Street, in the Menlo Park Civic Center. Money raised by the fair funds several library programs, such as Project Read and Family Literacy, and allows the library to make special purchases.
An added bonus to this year's fair is the silent auction, which took a hiatus last year. Tim Goode, a Friends of Menlo Park Library volunteer, said this year, patrons can take part in an oral auction for a two-year collection of very unusual books. Written bids will be taken on Saturday and Sunday until 11:30 a.m. Records will again be part of the sale.
But besides the auction, book lovers from around the Peninsula can find enough books from more than 30 specific categories to stock an entire library without breaking the bank. Which makes Mr. Goode happy.
"We (Friends of the Menlo Park Library) have a three-pronged mission: to recycle books, give great buys for the patrons, and support the library."
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