Last night I went to the fundraiser for the Spokane Public Library Foundation at the library called "You Can Not Do That In The Library". They had a band "Too Slim and the Taildraggers" that played very loud music. The Friends of the Library had a silent auction of used books, and they served pizza from a local pizza parlor and beer and pop. When was the last time you got to party in the library among the book shelves. Actually this is the fourth one held at our library and each has been well attended.
Why is this important to genealogists? Eastern Washington Genealogical Society and the library have been partners for many years, all the materials EWGS has collected over the years are housed at that library (the gene materials are on the third floor and the party was on the second floor). EWGS also provides gene helpers for people coming to Spokane that need help in the gene section.
The Friends of the Library had a silent auction of used books and if you have read my earlier posts on the EWGS Presidents on the EWGS Blog you will see EWGS played a large role in the founding of the Friends of the Library group.
EWGS, The Friends of the Library and the Spokane Public Library Foundation are all helping the Spokane Public Library, and in these budget cutting times the library has been able to open on Mondays this year. In 2005 they had a big budget cut and closed on Mondays, but with help from these three groups and some grants and partnerships with local job hunting groups they are now open one more day a week. We as genealogist need to help support our libraries as not all the information for our ancestors is on the internet, and if the library is closed that information is locked away from us.
There is a genealogy group somewhere in Texas, I think, that has occasional "late nighters/overnighters" at the library for full-access research and they use this, among other events, to help raise money for the library. Library events like these sound like so much fun!
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