Renovations To Book Room Complete

By Nancy K. Crevier

Renovations to the book room on the lower level of the C.H. Booth Library were completed this past week, following a hectic two-week schedule that included completely emptying the room of books stored there for the annual Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Book Sale, removing the shelving, patching and painting the walls, and finishing the floors.

The book room is used by the Friends to store the thousands of books, DVDs, CDs, videos, and other book-related items donated throughout the year for the sale. Volunteers gather weekly in the room to sort, clean, categorize, and price the book sale items.

The space was in great need of a facelift, said Friends volunteer Toni Earnshaw. On view to the public passing by or those passing through on the way to the board room beyond the book room, it seemed that not only would an update lift the spirits of those working there, but be in keeping with the beautiful surroundings of the rest of the C.H. Booth Library.

Books and donated items not yet categorized and sorted by the time renovations began earlier this month were removed from the room and stored in a PODS unit outside of the library.

Volunteers will now enjoy a lighter and brighter room painted a cheerful yellow, and find firm footing on the floor coated with water-based Epoxy. The pale gray finish contains an antislip agent, said Friends President Mary Maki. “We chose this because it would be an easy-to-clean finish that could also take the weight of the carts that constantly pass through that room,” she said.

Select Wood Floors of Newtown was the contractor for the job.

On Sunday, November 22, Friends volunteers were busily scrubbing shelving and securing it back on the walls again in preparation for the replacement of the books and donations that had continued to stream in during the two weeks of down time.

“Donations of books, CDs, DVDs, and so on support a variety of benefits to the library and town,” said Ms Earnshaw. Items such as updated computers, books, and more convenient automatic checkout devices are but a few of the projects supported by funds from Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, and the Annual Book Sale is the organization’s biggest fundraiser.

“People should know that their donations are respected and honored in ways they may not have thought about,” Ms Earnshaw said. “For example, we have received donations that through the diligent research of volunteers have ended up in the Holocaust Museum; and personal treasures like the child’s memory book complete with birth certificate and other essentials that was traced back to and returned to the parents when it was accidentally donated,” she said. Recently, the Friends received books from a member of the Hawley family, who rather than simply put the books into the sale offered them to the library to see if they would be of historical interest to the town.”

With a bright and clean environment, volunteers are eagerly looking forward to catching up on sorting the books that have piled up these past two weeks, said Ms Maki, and to welcoming new volunteers to assist in the year around preparations for the book sale. Call Ms Maki at 203-426-3889 or the library at 203-426-4533 for information on volunteering.