MLK Dream Team - January 2 - 16, 2004

Become a member of the Birmingham Public Library MLK Dream Team. Drop by any local Birmingham Public Library location and share your dream for a brighter future. Participants may register for a MLK Dream Team give-away.

Have your ever wondered what happens to all of the library's torn, out-of-date, and worn-out books? After deleting the books from the library catalog, they go the bookstores and book sales operated by Friends of the Library organizations. These groups sell the library's discarded books, as well as materials donated by the public. The money received from the sale of these items is given back to the library to fund programs and to supplement the cost of library services. At the Adamsville, Homewood, Hoover, and Vestavia Hills libraries, materials go to in-house bookstores.  All of the Birmingham Public Library's twenty branches send their books to the Central branch downtown, which also operates an in-house bookstore.  The Fultondale, Gardendale-Martha Moore, Graysville, Hueytown, Irondale, Midfield, Pleasant Grove, Tarrant, Trussville, and Warrior-Evelyn Thornton libraries have displays set up within the library to sell of their ragged well-used books.  Other libraries, such as Bessemer, Emmet O'Neal (Mountain Brook), Leeds-Jane Culbreth, and Walter J. Hanna (Fairfield) have large book sales once or twice a year.  Although the materials sold are no longer suitable for library use, they are still readable, ant he purchases help support various library activities.  Contact your local library for its bookstore hours, or to find out the date its next book sale.