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April-June 2000 President's Message Memorials, Gifts and Donations Libraries For the Future Update Austin History Center African American Outreach Program
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President's Message
It's over - done - finis - kaput. The big sale is history. According to treasurer Ed Burns, we cleared approximately $50,000.00 for our efforts, the second best sale in our history. The volunteers were super - great - outstanding, and they worked very hard. When you consider we had only one day for our setup, Connie Moore's crew worked wonders. We were just about ready for action by 3 p.m. on Friday afternoon. I'm sure a lot of Ben Gay and aspirin was consumed. You are to be congratulated on a job well done. The biggest problem we had was in getting organizations to pick up the leftovers on Sunday evening. We thought we had about twelve organizations lined up to take the books off our hands. Four showed up. This was a big disappointment, as it cost us over $2,500.00 to get the books out of Palmer and back to the Library basement. In this respect we owe a big thank-you to Ann Stafford, who lined up the movers and a crew of volunteers from IBM to help us sort and dispose of the unwanted books. She even ordered pizza! As you are aware, Palmer Auditorium and the surrounding area will be undergoing renovation for the next two years or so. We have moved our book sale to the Crockett Center, which is located on the Highway 290 access road between IH-35 and Cameron Road, the old Best Products Store. This is a private venture, not related to the city, so our costs will be considerably higher than in the past. More on this later. Our Web page will be undergoing some changes. We are setting up an independent entity through a local organization that gives free Web space to non-profits. We will still have tie-ins with the Library, however. This is currently a work in process, so we will be getting the word out later. If you noticed something new about this letter, it's because we found an editor. Beth Hollingsworth of Houston has volunteered to take on the project. She is a 1996 graduate of the University of Houston with a Bachelor's Degree in Creative Writing and Sociology. Beth has considerable editing and library experience and collects children's books. She can be reached at (713) 528-7718 or online at kbhollingsworth@hotmail.com. We really are entering the electronic age. Ken LaRonde
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