By Dominik Lobkowicz
Posing behind the library’s circulation desk are (from left) former librarian Theresa Burrill, current librarian Kathleen Stone, Jefferson Public Library Committee member Ann Liburt, board member and former librarian Catherine Moore, and committee memberJoan Ebbeson. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
The Jefferson Public Library celebrated its 30th anniversary Aug. 23, tying the event in with their annual fundraising book sale.
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Emily Sprague, 7, has a lick of Moose Tracks ice cream at the Jefferson Public Library’s 30th anniversary celebration Aug. 23. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
According to Jefferson Public Library Committee member Joan Ebbeson, the effort for a library in town began in 1971 when a group of parents started an association to add a library to the old Jefferson Village School.
After years of fundraising, the library came to be as part of an expansion of the school in 1984, and continues now as part of the new Jefferson Village School, Ebbeson said.
“Today we celebrate 30 years and look forward to many more,” Ebbeson read from a prepared statement at the event. “We thank the volunteers who made the Jefferson School Library and the Jefferson Public Library happen, and we recognize those who have been employed as librarians for the town of Jefferson: Susan F. Wilson, Annabelle Baldwin, Marion MacDonald, Nancy Wilson, Catherine Moore, Kathleen Peabody, Theresa Burrill, and Kathleen Stone.”
About 50 people were lined up outside Jefferson Village School for the library’s book sale first thing in the morning, volunteers estimated. The turnout was a bit smaller than in years past, according to Ebbeson.
The sale was held at the library’s relatively new digs in the school instead of the town’s old firehouse where the sale was held in years past, and Ebbeson believes the change contributed to the smaller turnout this year.
The money from the sale goes toward purchasing new books for the library, said Ann Liburt, a member of the library’s board.
“The more we make, the more we buy, the bigger our library gets,” she said.
Since the sale was held at the library this year instead and set up the day before, it was more difficult to break the books out into categories beyond simple fiction and non-fiction ahead of time and this may have affected the sale’s success, Ebbeson said.
“It makes it harder for people to find what they want,” she said.
Even before the last hour of the sale, when books were going for $1 a box, the prices were low, Ebbeson said – as low as 25 children’s books for $1, for example.
“It’s a success if it just gets people reading books that they like,” Ebbeson said.
Those books still remaining at the end of the sale were destined to be donated because the previous storage space at the old firehouse was no longer available, according to volunteer Suzanne Westrich.
Despite this year’s difficulties, the committee is looking for a permanent place to set up for the sale and store the books, making it easier to have it ready for the customers, Ebbeson said.
“We are thinking that if we could have a location where we weren’t forced to just throw the sale together on the last day that we could make the shopping more convenient for people and I think we’d sell a lot more books that way,” she said.
Ebbeson said the committee still considered the sale a success.
“To see a bunch of kids enthusiastically showing their tote bags full of books was nice to watch,” she said.
As part of the celebration, three Jefferson Fire & Rescue Explorer Scouts dished out ice cream and cones provided by Jefferson Scoop at an ice cream social toward the end of the book sale.
Emily Sprague, 7, of Jefferson, took first in the event’s cupcake contest.
Sprague said she made all three entries in the contest, but her grammy, Carol Jones, helped.
Jefferson Fire & Rescue Explorer Scouts (from left), Josh Stone, 16, Madyson Geboski, 14, and Tristan Geboski, 16, helped dish out ice cream provided by Jefferson Scoop. (D. Lobkowicz photo) |
