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Friday, March 29
The Indiana Daily Student

Friends of the Library celebrates 50 years

Chloe Trinidad eats a free cupcake during the Monroe County Public Library's 50th birthday celebration Sunday afternoon. The library celebrated with food trucks, games, crafts and free cupcakes for their guests.

Friends of the Library celebrated 50 years of support at the Monroe County Public Library on Sunday.

The group gives the library more than $100,000 a year, according to Mary Jean Regoli, the office manager for Friends of the Library. She said the aim of the program has remained the same for the last 50 years.

“It’s always been people from the community who care about the library,” Regoli said. “For all 50 years our goal has been to support the extra programs that make this an award-winning library.”

The library celebrated Friends of the Library with party games, such as pin the tail on the library bears, birthday cards in the children’s activity room, cupcakes in the atrium, food trucks in a lot across the street and a Swing Your Partner Birthday Party dance in the afternoon.

Friends of the Library raises money through membership, clearance sales, bookstore sales, donations and the Campaign for Excellence, which focuses on a different project each year.

Regoli said the largest change to the program in recent times is the scope of its services: endowments, programs and participation have grown.

The Friends of the Library Bookstore used to be a temporary bookstore, at one point meeting only once a week in the atrium of the library.

It brought in a few thousand dollars, Regoli said. After renovations, the bookstore moved to a permanent room in the library.

Now it brings in more than $80,000 each year.

The group started programs to try to spread information and attract more visitors to the library.

It provides funds for the digital center in the library, the Coffee with Friends Program that brings authors to speak with patrons and the Power of Words, a speaker series that featured the authors of “March” this year.

“We’ve expanded our spread, our reach and our impact,” Regoli said. “We’re growing and more visible, but our focus has stayed the same.”

Bobby Overman, a librarian at MCPL, said she appreciates how Friends of the Library changes with the library.

As the library has expanded its digital programs and outreach, Friends of the Library has helped fund the new efforts.

Several programs at the library aim to bring in the community. There’s a bookmobile, a branch in Ellettsville and a van service that brings books to assisted living services.

“It’s a community meeting space,” Overman said. “Being downtown helps with that.”

The group also funds the library’s support of local nonprofits. The library has access to Foundation Center database, an international database through which organizations can find funding for their 
projects.

The library teaches local non-profits how to use the system.

Julie Martin, a Friends of the Library board member and retired reference assistant, said the movement to digital projects has been one of the biggest changes. There are virtual tools and virtual databases.

“We’ve always changed with technology,” Martin said.

As the library begins new programs, the Friends of the Library supports the projects.

“The one thing that hasn’t changed is the support of the Friends,” Overman said. “It’s just gotten stronger.”

For more information about the Friends of the Library or to donate, call 812-349-3083 or visit www.mcpl.info/friends.

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