Patricia Cooper-Smith: Friends of the Library needs you

The Friends of the Carson City Library supports the Carson City Library. You may best know us by our bookstore – The Browser Corner Book Store. It’s the little brick building across the street from the library. It operates entirely on donations and volunteer help, and it is thriving. The Browser Corner is open Monday through Saturday. Come back or come visit for the first time.

Friends of the Carson City Library has been around for a long time. In fact, FOCCL has been around longer than the library. What? Yes, it’s true.

According to urban myth, which may or may not be completely accurate, in 1964, a group of residents who were supporters of a library had gotten weary of the tiny proto-library in the basement of the Paul Laxalt Building (now the Nevada Commission on Tourism) watching ceiling dust fall on them from children playing basketball upstairs, and then being asked to leave the premises because the State Library needed the space. The eviction was a blessing in disguise. What to do?

During this time the Fleischman Foundation was giving money to build libraries and schools, but only to non-profit organizations. These library activists filed to become a non-profit called “Friends of Ormsby County Library” in 1964, and became a bona fide non-profit in 1965. They applied for a Fleishman Foundation grant and worked with the city to plan and build the library. The Ormsby County Library opened in 1966.

If any of you dear readers were a part of this group of rabble-rousing library builders or know more about this story, I want to hear more, and personally thank you.

Today, some 53 years later, the Carson City Library is a vital, busy place that provides many services to the community. FOCCL continues to dedicate itself to filling in the gap between reality and general budget funding.

Friends of the Carson City Library donates funds for books, periodicals, audio recordings, videos; it provides funding for library programs such as Youth Department Summer Learning Programs and National Library Week events; and, it operates the Browsers Corner Book Store with its profits going to the library. In 2017 the donation was $38,000, in 2018, $33,000.

Friends of the Carson City Library benefits you, your family, and our community.

As FOCCL’s new president, I want to expand FOCCL’s membership base from primarily individuals and families to more business/corporate memberships. We want everyone to say, “yes,” to ensuring our library continues to be busy and alive with people and activities and an anchor in our community. If you are a Carson City business, you are going to be hearing more from us soon.

Let’s talk. Call me at 775-450-1318. Join us!

For information: www.friendscclibrary.org; Facebook, www.facebook.com/friendscclibrary; Twitter, @friendsofcclib

Patricia “Patti” Cooper-Smith is president of Friends of the Carson City Library.