Friends, Guild, and Association Groups FAQs

  • General Questions

    We have 41 local Friends of the Library groups. New members are always welcome. Interested in joining a local Friends group? Find your next local meeting on our calendar. Or, contact your local library to find out more.

    Most of the Friends groups ask that members pay small annual dues, around $5 per year. Members also volunteer time for fundraising projects, community events, and meeting attendance. Find your local group.

    Most Friends of the Library groups welcome donations of:

    • Hardcover and paperback books in good condition
    • Audiobooks on CD
    • Music CDs
    • DVDs and video computer games
    • Comics and graphic novels

    Please check with your local group for more information.

    Most Friends of the Library groups are unable to accept:

    • Books that are missing pages, smelly, warped, torn, stained, mildewed, damaged, wet, or in otherwise poor condition
    • Textbooks and reference materials older than five years
    • Reader’s Digest Condensed books or Time-Life sets
    • Encyclopedias
    • Magazines, periodicals, or professional journals
    • VHS videos, music, or language on cassettes
    • Audio visual media that is a copy, is incomplete, or is without original case and notes

    Check with your local group for more information.

    Most libraries have a Friends, Guild, or Association group.

    Get the details about your library's group on the library's About page. You can find your library's About page at the top of its location page. Or, go directly to your library's About page from this list:

    You can donate books to your preferred Friends group. Find your nearest Friends of the Library group. During operating hours you can donate books through the library itself. Due to limited storage space, there may be a limit to how many boxes of donations we can accept at one time. Please contact your Friends Group if you plan to donate more than two boxes to make sure there is space.

    We generally do not add donations to the cataloged collection. It is often more expensive to prepare donated books for library use than to buy them. When we buy materials from our vendors, they provide deep discounts and do much of the processing for us.

    Friends groups raise funds through book sales. All Friends have ongoing book sale shelves in the library. You can find an upcoming fundraiser or book sale at the nearest library in our event calendar.

    Yes. Please contact your local library for more information.

    Yes. All libraries now accept donations.