The more things change, the more they stay the same. A quick glance at the Friends of the Thousand Oaks Library’s collection of news clippings show that book sales and supporting the library have been the Friends’ story from the very beginning. The Friends have a long history and boxes of scrapbooks to prove it, which is why we are so glad to welcome Sue Soy to the Board. Sue is a former librarian with the Thousand Oaks Library system, and has accepted the tremendous task of cataloging and archiving the Friends’ collection of historical documents.
Sue is eminently qualified to catalog the Friends’ history; her history with the Library goes back to the 1970’s when she was a librarian at the Conejo Library. Sue also served with Marvin Smith and Grant Brimhall on the building committee, which oversaw the construction of the current facility.
Among the treasures contained in the archives are many news clippings of book sales, through which the Friends raised funds to meet the library’s needs. Back in the 1960’s, the Friends’ book sale was an annual event called “Twice Told Tales,” and that sale raised money for items such as a record player and a microfiche reader (which the library staff praised as “the most important piece of equipment acquired that year”).
Over the ensuing decades, the Friends have expanded their operations to expanded bookshops inside both libraries; “pop-up” and themed book sales; and online sales. The Friends have a thriving used-book business on Amazon Marketplace and Ebay, which continues to provide a revenue stream while the library and the Friends’ Bookshop are closed.
Of course, the purchases made with Friends’ funds are no longer record players, but rather popular library attractions such as the 5,000-gallon aquarium and the new state of the art podcast studio, in addition to programming such as concerts, Summer Reading Club, and One City, One Book.
The archives that Sue will be cataloging also contain correspondence from authors, such as the hand-illustrated letter from Elmer and Berta Hader that accompanied a copy of The Big Snow for the library’s collection. The Big Snow is still available in the library’s circulating collection today (order it for curbside pickup!).
One thing that definitely remains the same is how much fun the Friends have doing the work that raises funds for the library. Though the outfits have changed (hats and pearls no longer required, thank goodness), the dedication to the library and the sense of community service still endure. Many lifelong friendships have begun in doing volunteer work with the Friends.
It’s often said that without the past, there is no future. We are so glad to have Sue on the Board, and look forward to exploring more of the Friends past through her work on the archives. Moving forward in uncertain times, we hope to build on the foundation of the Friends’ past work into new and additional ways of raising revenue, advocating for the library, and ensuring that our support for the library remains as strong as ever.
If any of our readers has clippings or copies from the past, we’d love to hear from you and obtain a copy for our archives. Please contact us at archivist1@gmail.com.