“Our mission is to get people to read more, to promote literacy and any way we can do that efficiently, we welcome,” said Michael Pollard of Friends of the Library (Friends) Aug. 12, in a gathering of volunteers, directors and board members. Friends is best known for operating the used bookstore in the historic Hyde House beside Boothbay Harbor Memorial Library (BHML), but the group’s reach is well beyond literacy advocacy. Each year, Friends contributes a sizeable amount of money to BHML’s operational budget and has been essential in fostering a culture of support for the library, reading groups and the community at large, serving both year-round residents and seasonal visitors.

“I just had a family come through who have been coming in for 57 years. It’s the third generation of that family, who make it a point to come to the bookstore,” said Glenn “Sam” Stevens, the bookstore’s volunteer coordinator. “Friends was already well established when I started here in 1966. The goals of nonprofits like ours have been to provide cultural, financial and physical assistance to the libraries they support. When I began, a big portion of the work was to get help for the sole librarian. Over time, we began to focus more on financial assistance; Friends would raise money to purchase expensive books and collections that were beyond the library’s budget. I remember we bought a Norman Rockwell coffee table book for $40, and it was a big deal. Picture books were very expensive back then.”

Friends became a 501(c)3 in September 1994 but has operated perpetually since the early 1960s and before that, as needed. Each year, volunteers transport, sort, shelf and sell hundreds of books resulting in an annual contribution to BHML. “For a 12-year run leading up to COVID, we donated $30,000 annually, $30,000 has become the yearly benchmark. During COVID, the bookstore was porch sales only. People knew we had to be closed and I think they paid more than they usually would for porch books, to help out, and we were able to raise $12,000 that year,” said Board President Jane Homer. Books on the porch are typically priced “pay what you think it’s worth.” “Then the year after COVID, we were still digging out and only raised $25k for the library, but now we’re back to our benchmark.”

“I find a lot of joy in doing this, in working with the library bookstore,” said Director Roberta Matchett. Volunteers begin working for the bookstore in April, and in May they operate under abbreviated hours. By June, the bookstore is open six days a week, staffed by volunteers working in two-hour shifts. The bookstore closes around Thanksgiving, after Booktoberfest, an annual bookfair on the library’s lawn where customers purchase books by the bag for a flat cost.

Donations of books, CDs, DVDs and audiobooks are accepted May-November, during hours of operation. Items must be in sellable condition. A list of items they cannot accept can be found at bbhlibrary.org/used-bookstore/

“We love best sellers,” said volunteer Joanne Hammond. “We sold the same ‘Where the Crawdads Sing’ (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2018) three times in one season.”

“There’s a sense of pride we have in operating out of Hyde House beside the library,” said Meridith Watts. Behind the scenes, volunteers unpack boxes of books and categorize them by genres matching BHML’s genre classification system. Sometimes the sorting room is so full, books spill over into the second floor of Hyde House and, at one point, even to the cellar. Each genre has a volunteer point person who is responsible for shelving the donated books. Each volunteer has a different system for tracking the shelf time of the books – some are color-coded; some, time-stamped. “We want to keep the indoor supply fresh,” said Pollard. Books that don’t meet the standards or books that have been unsold for a period of time are boxed up and sent to the transfer station. Before COVID the Salvation Army would take the unsold books.

Friends has about 44 people in its orbit of donors and volunteers. New volunteers are always welcome, said Stevens, 207-350-6772, thefriends@bbhlibrary.org. Friends will hold its annual meeting at 2 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 26 at Boothbay Town Hall. Presently, the board has seven members (four officers, three directors) and Homer hopes to appoint two more directors soon.