Books to beg, borrow -- or trade

Lynne Conrad, assistant librarian of the Sisters Library, re-fills the "revolving book racks," of paperback volumes which may be "checked out" and kept indefinitely, without a library card. Photo by Tom Chace

A revolving book rack, literally, is in use at the Sisters Library for those who want to take one or more books out and keep them indefinitely.

"This is not a particularly new service," said Sandy McDonald, assistant librarian. "But not too many people know about it. We do have four large carousels or rotary book racks where we keep paperbacks for those who want to take books on vacation or don't want to be bothered with checkout and return dates.

"They are divided into genres such as Romance, Western, Mysteries and Fiction for our clients to sort through and find one or more they want to borrow or take and keep. There are probably 200 books on file there," she said. "With new ones coming from a variety of sources daily, it is one of our most popular sections."

The racks are located to the right as you enter the library, directly in front of the magazine section.

The "no check out policy" means that this class of books can be kept out indefinitely.

What if they never get returned?

"That's fine," McDonald said. "We get as many new ones donated as we lose.

"In fact, we have people from out of town who visit Sisters infrequently and want to take several books with them for travel reading," she said. "Next time they come through here, they will bring back the books they took out or give us books from other places. It is truly a revolving library system. The nice thing is we're doing all people a service, not just those from Sisters," she said.

One of the 35 volunteers whose job it is to re-stack returned books at the library on a continuing basis suggested that if people do not give their soft-cover used books to Habitat or some other equally good charity, then they could donate them to the library for this unique, revolving appendage to the regular library services.

"Often, we will have someone walk in with an armload of books that he or she has collected on miles of motor-home or RV travels and want to exchange them for a pile of ours," McDonald said. "We do it gladly. It gives us a fresh supply of used books and the traveler another gladdened trip or two of reading material."

"It is not unusual for those perusing the "lazy-Susan" book rack to stay for a while and catch up on the latest news with our supply of daily newspapers in a nice reading and sitting environment," said Peg Bermel, head librarian.

Those wishing to donate soft-cover books for the revolving, unlimited time borrowing or exchange, may drop them off at the Sisters Library, 291 E. Main St. between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m., seven days a week. If the library is closed, there is a "return book drop" to the left of the doors.