By Mary Fran Verostek
Thanks to the generosity of patrons at our Friends of the Library Spring 2025 Used Book Sale, over 250 children’s and young adult books were donated, collected, and packaged for delivery to The RED Bookshelf, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization located in downtown Albany, dedicated to “. . . inspiring children to read.” This is accomplished by cleaning and mending, then recirculating gently used children’s books into the community, and working with community partners to facilitate events to encourage readers! The staff, and volunteer ‘menders and tenders’, were truly appreciative!
Let’s follow the journey of your generously donated books into the hands of children and families eager to read!
STEP 1 – The RED Bookshelf staff take the donated books and work with volunteer ‘menders’ to clean, mend and repair the books to make them ‘like new’. Currently, two members of the Friends of the Clifton Park-Halfmoon Library are very fortunate to volunteer twice monthly as menders.
STEP 2 – Once repaired, the books are placed by volunteer ‘tenders’ onto RED bookshelves filled with free books in schools, public service offices, doctor’s offices, barber shops, Boys and Girls Clubs, and in public housing community areas. The idea is that the books are available where the children, and their families, are already going.
STEP 3 – The books are chosen from the shelves by children and their families with no limit on how many one can choose, and are meant to be kept, building a library at home. This summer, books will be available at the Movies Under the Stars 2025 series at multiple locations throughout Albany county. And in 2023 alone, over 47,000 books were selected from the RED bookshelves.
There is a wonderful video available on their website, TheRedBookshelf.org, called “My Life As A Book” that follows the life of a book, such as the ones recently donated at our Used Book Sale, from donation through selection from a RED Bookshelf!
Do you want to learn more about The RED Bookshelf? Please follow them on both Facebook and Instagram @redbookshelfalbany.