One thing that we know people were doing in 2020 was taking a look at the places where they live. The U.S. Census Bureau reveals that home improvement stores, the remodeling industry, home improvement markets, and building materials suppliers were not impacted by the pandemic. Almost a quarter of American homeowners surveyed said they will spend somewhere between $5,000 and $15,000 on home improvement projects in 2021.
At the Delaware County District Library, we’ve learned that you’ve also been cleaning. During the height of the pandemic, we received inquiries on a daily basis asking if we were accepting donations at our locations. Many of you patiently held on to your purged books from your bookshelves, awaiting the day the announcement would come that donations would finally be allowed.
Today, July 17, is one of two days that our Friends of the Delaware County District Library have named as a Book Donation Drive-By Day. Stop by the Orange Branch Library today between 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. to drop off your bags or boxes of book, DVD and audiobook donations.
If you can’t make it today, mark next Saturday, July 24 from 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. at the Delaware Main Library. The Friends will accept items that are clean and in a gently used condition.
Unfortunately, they can no longer accept periodicals, magazines, newspapers, journals, activity books, Readers Digest, VHS, LP albums, audio cassettes, Playaway audio books, advanced reader copies and outdated law, medical, computer or travel books.
Once the two book donation events take place, beginning July 25, all Delaware County District Library locations will begin accepting donations as usual. These events are meant to make it easier on you – and your back – as Friends volunteers will take your heavy donations straight from your car to a dolly and around to the storage unit where they can be appropriately sorted and prepared for their future use.
The first Bargain Book Sale is not yet scheduled, but Friends members and the general public will see an update with details very soon. It will take place at the Delaware Main Library sometime in the near future.
If you haven’t become a Friends of the Delaware County District Library member yet, you can become one at www.delawarelibraryfriends.org or by picking up a membership brochure at any DCDL branch. When you support the Friends, either with your time, book or monetary donations, you support DCDL and our resources, services and programs, including the Summer Reading Club.
If you’re like me, your renovation projects for 2021 included an outdoor makeover to enjoy those precious few months of outdoor living we get in Ohio. So in honor of the outdoors and July being National Park and Recreation Awareness Month, our new book titles this week are in the nature and science genres.
• “Finding the Mother Tree: Discovering the Wisdom of the Forest” by Suzanne Simard. Forest ecologist Suzanne Simard describes how trees utilize extensive mycorrhizal (fungal) networks in order to communicate and cooperate with one another.
• “A Brief History of Earth: Four Billion Years in Eight Chapters” by Andrew H. Knoll. Harvard geologist Andrew Knoll offers a concise and accessible survey of Earth’s 4.6 billion year history. In this “expert primer” (Kirkus Reviews) complex organisms don’t show up until the halfway point of the narrative, while humans appear only in the closing section.
• “Rescuing the Planet: Protecting Half the Land to Heal the Earth” by Tony Hiss; introduction by E.O. Wilson. Protecting 50 percent of Earth’s land by 2050 will help avert mass extinction caused by climate change. Admitting there’s no silver bullet, former New Yorker staff writer Tony Hiss meets with activists and conservation groups to explore possible solutions including wildlife corridors, Indigenous Protected Areas, green reserves, and more.
• “A World on the Wing: The Global Odyssey of Migratory Birds” by Scott Weidensaul. Discover the science of bird migration, the technologies that are advancing field research, and the uncertain fate of migratory birds as humans use the planet. Read it for “evocative passages and immersive scenes” (The New York Times) that place readers in the middle of the action.
