Books, books, and more books

Another hot day today - about 93 and humid. But it's supposed to "cool off" for the next few days - down into the 80s. It'll be a nice change.

I had a fairly short day at the gallery. After lunch, I headed to the library to help with some "deprocessing". The library has been purging the shelves, getting rid of books that are very old and/or out-of-date (like a computer programming book from the 1970s) and/or rarely checked out. The library staff pulls the books off the shelves, boxes them and takes them to a storage area. These will be offered to the public at the Friends' book sales during the year.

But first, the label on the book spine is marked through with a felt-tipped marker. Then, any place on the book with the name of the library has to be overstamped with the word "Discarded". There are anywhere from one to six places where the library name might be stamped, usually depending on the age of the book. After the volunteer (me) marks the book, the library staff person and the head of the book sales divide the books into the categories (fiction, sports, travel, religion, etc.) used at the sales. As the areas fill up, the books are then placed in appropriately labeled boxes, and put in a storage area to await the sale.

It's pretty mindless work, and not really hard, but it is something that needs to be done. John and I are both going to try to help out a couple of hours a week. Amazingly, I only brought two books home. One was an Ivan Doig book we hadn't read and another was an old book I got for a gift.

I'm looking foward to sleeping later in the morning. Hope it happens.