October 15 to October 21 is National Friends of Libraries Week [2]! We will be celebrating our Friends volunteers this week with special treats and visits to the Sort Site. You may also notice some fun shout-outs on social media. Here are a few fun facts about our Friends!

• Founded in 1978, the Friends helped start the Library Endowment Trust and have gifted over $6,000,000 in grants to the library system over the years.
• The Friends are governed by a nonprofit board of volunteers and run their book-selling operations from the east side of the Service Center building. They sell on eBay, Amazon, and ThriftBooks, and have in-person sales in the Metro.
• On average, 75 volunteers give 1,200 hours of time each month to manage Friends operations. The value of that time at the Sort Site equals approximately $461,000 annually! (And that doesn't include the additional 500+ volunteers at book sale events!)
• You think YOU have found weird things in library books... donated books have money, hair, funeral cards, love letters, bills, receipts, to-do lists, photographs, health results and dozens of other long-forgotten items Friends try to reconnect to donors when appropriate and possible.
• Friends membership is currently open and provides members with a quarterly newsletter as well as VIP member access to book sale events.

Learn more about our Friends at www.supportmls.org/fol [3]. We are so grateful for their ongoing support!