Regional library wraps up Adopt-A-Book campaign

Held every other year, campaign helps library add to its collection; 1,000-book total surpassed again

The Western Counties Regional Library has wrapped up its latest Adopt-A-Book campaign, with this year’s effort resulting in the “adoption” of 1,324 books with a combined value of about $36,000.

The campaign was held in April, May and June. The initiative, which takes place every two years, was introduced in 1996 and, in the dozen campaigns conducted between 1996 and this year, the number of adopted books has totalled 15,850 with a total value of over $345,000.

“It is always humbling and encouraging to receive such support from the public, businesses and organizations,” said Ian White, public relations manager with the Western Counties Regional Library. “They truly believe in their public library.”

The Adopt-A-Book campaign was created as a way to help provide library users with new books and materials beyond the library’s annual operating budget.

Through the campaign, books can be adopted as a gift for a special occasion or in someone’s memory. Adopted books have a nameplate acknowledging the adoption.

Librarians select the books that are up for adoption. The library tries to offer a variety of titles covering various subjects. Book prices can vary, but the average, according to figures provided by the library, is between $25 and $35, although they can be as little as $5. For the Western Counties Regional Library’s Adopt-A-Book initiative, the highest single-year total of adopted books was 1,621 in 2010.

In 2016, the year of the last campaign before this latest one, 1,430 books worth just over $35,000 were adopted. In this photo from early May, Yarmouth library clerk Yvette Frost and Ian White, public relations manager with the Western Counties Regional Library, checked out the progress of this year’s Adopt-A-Book