As many of you know, Harris Memorial is a place with a rich history (and a historic building as its frame and foundation). This means a lot of upkeep needs to be done, and upkeep–and roof repairs–cost time, money, or most often both. So how is a little community like ours able to keep our beautiful library running like it should? Thanks in part to the efforts and donations of our volunteers and patrons.
Your efforts mean a lot to us. Here are a few ways you can keep helping.
Donate your gently used books, CDs, or DVDs to us. Items that we can put on our shelves to help diversify what we offer readers and viewers are integrated as quickly as time allows. Items that are duplicates or triplicates can be used for read-alongs or for book clubs. Items that may not be suitable for our shelves get new life as part of our annual used book and media sale at Otego Days in May.
Donate a copy of your favorite book to us. Contact Shannon is advance of buying a special copy of it for the library–we may already have it and might better benefit from a copy of your second-favorite book.
Donate your birthday to us on Facebook. It may sound crazy, but Facebook allows non-profit organizations like your library to receive donations through your Facebook presence (Shannon donated hers and raised $200 for the library). All you have to do is press a few keys to get the process started and Shannon is more than happy to help you get set up. Give her a call or come in and log on to one of our public computers.
Donate during NYGivesDay or #GivingTuesday. Yes, those are both real things! Even if you can’t give, you can help spread the word and encourage others to help in whatever way they can. It all helps and it all matters.
When shopping through Amazon, SMILE for us. Did you know that every time you shop on Amazon you can be making a tiny donation to your favorite non-profit (and we certainly qualify) if you log in first through their Smile page instead?
Let us know about opportunities for grants or fundraisers that we may have overlooked. We’re not too proud to listen to suggestions–especially if it helps our library serve our community better, and we believe strongly that there is always something great we can learn from each other!
Lighten your load! Drop your spare change into our Vortex container and watch the coins zip around in response to gravity. It’s great for us and fun for you!
Talk us up and come to events we host–the more the merrier! Suggest new activities that our locals might enjoy and benefit from! We want the Harris Memorial Library to be the heart of our amazing community and that requires people coming out to programs and events they want available in the future.
Offer your expertise or time. Have a skill or a hobby you can teach others? Offer a workshop, a talk, or a class! Tell us about your most recent trip, or something fascinating you learned locally! Encourage your attendees to leave donations for the library.
Volunteer! Do you love cleaning, or painting, or shelving books, or washing windows, or helping garden? Maybe you’re great at blogging about books, libraries and Otego–we can use that skill, too! We have volunteer opportunities for all of those things and more–just ask Shannon and she’ll get you set up to be a contributing part of our community.