Friends of Lamar Library Celebrates their 50th Anniversary

It’s been a very full week for the Lamar Library and the Friends of the Library. The spring book sale runs from April 9^th to the 13^th featuring hundreds of volumes in various categories; a new librarian was welcomed into the community, Sarah McDonnell, who hails from the Denver area and the 50^th anniversary of the Friends organization.

Caro Hedge gleaned past newspaper articles from the Lamar Daily News and Tri-State Trader for information pertaining to Friends activities of the past half century and they were distributed during the book sale. The Friends began with a meeting of the Business and Professional Women held at the Carnegie library on Sunday, April 17, 1966 with 30 members joining the new organization and there were 70 members by the end of a month.  Dues were $1 per member.  The story hour, started in 1966 was the Friends first project and a record player was used to augment the stories.  By 1969 the Friends membership had grown to 256.

The well-known book sale events began in 1970 and they were held in the library basement and special bookmarks were given to participants. The dates for the one day sale had been changed, but it was decided to hold the sale during Library Week.

In 1971 some by-law changes had occurred, although dues were still $1 and $5 for institutions. The board has seven members at that point and Earl Bradley was the current president.  The book sale was referred to as the Twice Sold Book Sale which was spread over three afternoons.  Any leftover books were donated to the Veterans Hospital Library.