The Friends of the Ridgecrest Branch Library (FRBL)– are back in the book sale business, at least temporarily. Their latest sale started last weekend (Sept. 30) and continues this weekend, October 7 and 8. It is a “Bag of Books” event; $5 per bag for FRBL members, $10 per bag for non-members. Bring your own bag, or get one at the sale. The sale runs from 9 am to 3 pm, in the breezeway of the Old Sears Building (OSB) west of the North Albertsons area in the Sierra Vista Center (SVC), 1300 North Norma in Ridgecrest. As usual, all proceeds support programs and materials of the Ridgecrest Branch of the Kern County Library system.
This is FRBL’s blowout sale, the first in years. For more than a decade FRBL has been supported via the generous donation of a large heated, cooled, and lighted space owned by the Sierra Sands Unified School District at the Sierra Vista Center. But, after the big Ridgecrest earthquake some years ago, FRBL had to move its operations, first to three sea vans in the SVC parking lot, and later into the earthquake-damaged OSB. The quake was soon followed by the COVID outbreak that, in turn, resulted in a flood of donations to FRBL as Ridgecrest citizens cleaned out their personal book collections. FRBL has taken in many thousands of books, etc., in recent years.
Now, however, FRBL must soon vacate the OSB. Because FRBL has not found another location into which it can move, it must basically liquidate its book holdings. It can take no more book donations either at the OSB or at the Ridgecrest library. But the public can pick up bags of books cheaply at our sale, and support the local library at the same time. Visit our sale this weekend and pick up some inexpensive reading materials.
