Home Reference Alaskana Kids Search Engines	The Friends of the Homer Public Library, Inc. is a non-profit community organization that encourages public use and enjoyment of library services and facilities. The members of the Friends focus public attention on library needs and assist in the raising of funds, donations, endowments, and bequests for the Homer Public Library. Membership in the Friends is open to all individuals interested in helping the library. Meetings are held four times a year according to this schedule. If you are interested in becoming a Friend of the Homer Public Library, please stop by the library or to sign up, if you have Acrobat Reader installed on your computer, merely download and print their membership form, fill it out and send it in.
	Activities
	Reading Between the Lines: Library news, upcoming events, book reviews, and “audio bibliographies” may be heard every Sunday morning just after 10:00 a.m. on KBBI. Partners Joy Griffin and Cleo Webb recorded the weekly radio show for years until Joy’s unexpected death in February, 2002. Michael Hawfield and Caroline Venuti have since joined Cleo in writing the radio shows. The trio covers a wide range of topics such as wooden boats, birds, gardening, homework, historical fiction, and much more. Tune in to KBBI (AM 890) on Sunday mornings to find out more about your library.
	Barbara Kingsolver Award: HarperCollins presents the Barbara Kingsolver Award to the Friends of the Homer Public Library for outstanding community and volunteer involvement! This award, presented by HarperCollins Publishers on behalf of author Barbara Kingsolver, is given annually to a Friends organization supporting a library with an annual budget of less than $750,000. The honor includes a $10,000 prize for the purchase of books and is presented to the winners at the American Library Association Midwinter Conference. On Monday, January 17, HarperCollins flew Joy Griffin and Cleo Webb to San Antonio, TX to receive the award. HarperCollins chose the Homer Public Library among all other entrants because of two innovative projects: the earthquake book (see below), which has raised over $17,000 for the library, and the Top Drawer Collection. “The Friends have helped their library for more than 60 years. While in the past, most of their fundraising revenue has come from raffles, bake sales, used book sales and Murder Mystery dinners, the sale of their book is turning into their most profitable venture. It is allowing them to return proceeds – through an increased awareness of the library – to the writers and readers in their community. What better mission for a Friends group to foster?” (NewsUpdate: a Friends of Libraries U.S.A. Publication, volume 22, issue 6, January 2000, page 3)
	Fundraisers
	Book Sales: Book sales are held each fall on the third Saturday of September, and each spring on the day before Easter. In the fall, donated books and plants are sold. Many residents stock up on used books in preparation for the long winter ahead. In the spring, books, plants, and delicious baked goods made by the many talented bakers of Homer draw many people into the library. Somehow, on March 30, 2002, 900 people crowded into our tiny library for the spring book, plant, and bake sale!
	Murder Mystery Dinner:
	Projects
	Alaska ’64 Earthquake: Where were you? This book, compiled by Joy Griffin, transcribed by Susie Gibson, and designed by Dave Swarthout, is a collection of stories written by residents of Homer who lived through the Good Friday earthquake of March 27, 1964. The book is available now at the library for $15.95 per copy. Call or Email the library to place an order. All proceeds go to the Friends of the Homer Public Library
	"The most destructive earthquake to strike Alaska occurred at 5:46 pm on Good Friday, March 27, 1964. Registering between 8.4 and 8.6 on the Richter Scale in use at the time, its equivalent moment magnitude has since been revised upward to 9.2, making it the strongest earthquake ever recorded in North America." The earthquake and seismic waves that followed killed 131 persons, 115 of them Alaskans. (From The Alaska Almanac, Alaska Northwest Books.)
	Top Drawer Collection: The Top Drawer Collection is a collection of works by Kenai Peninsula writers put into circulation by the Homer Public Library. The program was begun years ago by Joy and Norman Griffin because they thought it a shame that many of the stories written by their local writer's group were read once or twice by the authors' friends and spouses then put away in top desk drawers, and often forgotten. It has become part of the Friends' annual National Library Week celebration and is expanded each April during this week.
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