Friends of the Folsom Public Library

Friends of the Folsom Library volunteers sell "gently worn" books at the Bookworm BOOKtique in the Georgia Murray Library Building in Folsom. Friends of the Folsom Library

The new Folsom Public Library in the Georgia Murray Library Building celebrated its grand opening Feb. 24. Housed within the library is the Bookworm BOOKtique, operated by a core group of volunteers and members of Friends of the Folsom Library.

The small store sells "gently worn" books in good condition, as an ongoing project to raise funds to finance special needs of the library. "We run it like a business, but we have fun," said director Nellie Loo.

Members include Loo; Fumi Allen, co-director; Ruth Loveall, manager; Mary Cobb, co-manager, Bill Cobb, finance director; Susan Douglas, Web site coordinator; Julie Calderwood,advertising ;and Ruth Stark, in charge of posters.

Friends of the Folsom Library is a nonprofit organization advocating and promoting the library as a community service. They support library programming, buy additional library materials and help the library with community outreach.

In July, on behalf of Friends, a check for $80,000 was presented to the City Council toward the purchase of a new radio frequency identification system for the library. The system helps to speed the checkout process for patrons and reduce staff time for sorting, re-shelving and finding misplaced books. The money was raised from proceeds from numerous book sales, other projects and community donations over the years.

The Bookworm BOOKtique is at 411 Stafford St., Folsom. Store hours are 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Friday and Saturday. For more information, call (916) 608-8743.

People: BOOKWORM BOOKtique