Book Sale at the Round Building April 5-7, 2024. Member Preview April 4.

About

Who We Are

The Friends of the Library are volunteers who believe excellent public libraries are a needed resource for our community. Volunteers demonstrate this by

  • Becoming members, serving on the Board and Committees
  • Sorting books donated for the Bookstore and Book Sale
  • Organizing the annual Book Sale
  • Staffing the Bookstore and workroom year-round
  • Working on programs and events to promote reading

Since 1966, when the Friends of the Library began in Macon with twelve members, our organization has donated over two and a half million dollars to the Macon-Bibb County Libraries.

Mission Statement

The mission of the Friends of the Library is to support the Macon-Bibb County Libraries and the literacy effort in our community.

More than a half-century of accomplishments

Book sales, membership dues, and donations have funded

  • Thousands of new adult titles
  • Puppet theaters, puppets, films, audiovisual equipment, and books by the hundreds for our children’s departments
  • Summer Reading programs
  • Furniture and equipment in the library for special needs patrons
  • Large print books
  • Audiobooks
  • The Georgia Author Collection, indexes, microfilm equipment, and the preservation of rare local documents for our Genealogical and Historical Room
  • Microfilm and microfiche reader/printers and computers for reference and cataloging
  • New Reader books at Washington Memorial Library to facilitate the Project Read Program
  • Contribution of $50,000 to the Lanford Branch when it opened in 2008
  • Contribution of scholarship funding for library employees pursuing ALA – accredited masters degrees
  • Renovation of a portion of Library property in 2022 as a permanent Friends Bookstore at 5494 Forsyth Road
  • Contribution of $50,000 in 2023 to mark the first post-Covid book sales and the first anniversary of the Bookstore