Yes, it is almost that time for the Annual Friends of the Library Book Sale. The dates are confirmed for Sept. 9 through Sept. 11. Now is the time to clean out your bookshelves of any unwanted books and bring them to the library for our sale. Then come back during the book sale and purchase some really good books to put back on those empty shelves!

Some of the books are gently used donations from the community and others are new donations from authors, book clubs, and publishers from all over the world. Also included in the sale are movies on videocassette and books on tape.

The book sale will be in the Osterneck Auditorium across the street from the library. The money raised helps support the library in purchasing items that are needed by the library. We greatly appreciate the community’s support.

September is National Library Card Signup Month. I hope to get lots of people from the community to sign up for their own free library card! If you don’t have a library card, please come by and get one.

All you need is your identification and the library staff will be happy to make you a library card. This card will also give you access to the NCLive Database. You used to have to call in and get a password to use this database, but just recently NCLive made a change where all you need is your library card number to access this free database. It’s a win-win situation.

Also, on Thursday is our Travel Club meeting. If you are interested in hearing where the travel club members will be going within the next year, please stop by the Osterneck Auditorium at 7 p.m. Everett Davis and Lenore Taylor have planned some very exciting trips to present to the club. Members can go on all the tours or pick and choose which tours sounds like something they might want to do. Each trip sounds very exciting. I can’t wait.

We have had many donations lately. A memorial donation was given by Chuck Wooley in memory of Lena Balch. And another memorial donation was given by the Friends of the Robeson County Public Library in memory of Dickson McLean. A memorial plaque will be placed in the front of the books. Thank you for thinking of the library.

Also several people from the community donated books to the library, including: Natasha Berumen; Carol Anne Lewis; Jean Noble; Don Metzger; Drina Hedgpeth; J.B. Townsend; Nancy Herthel; Lacy Taylor; and Mike Cox. Thank you so much for your generosity!

Recently we had several companies donate items to the library for the Children’s Department: Squishable donated stuffed animals; Party Palooza donated a box of toys for the summer reading prizes; Great Plains Zoo donated toys, stickers and books; Discount School Supply donated markers, gems and masks for a craft project; Sea Shell City donated a box of Seashells for the summer reading craft program; and Montessori Services donated games, stencils, scissors play dough, and books. I am truly amazed at the generosity these businesses sent our library from all over the country. Thank you.

Tina Stepp is the director at the Robeson County Public Library and can be reached at (910) 738-4859 or tstepp@robesoncountylibrary.org.