GUELPH POLITICAST #53 - Friends of the Guelph Public Library

Ten years ago, council was talking about building a new main public library, and 10 years later... they're still talking about it. But back in the heady, care-free days of the aughts, the goal seemed a lot closer, and a group of citizens thought they'd put their money where their mouth is by showing council what an appetite there was for a new, modern, state-of-the-art library and cultural centre. One decade, and a half a million dollars later, those people - and many, many more - still come out every year to show their love of books.

This week on the Guelph Politicast, taking a break from organizing the biggest darn annual used book sale in the city, are Friends of the Guelph Public Library Virginia Gillham, Carole Stewart, Carol Hermann. They are three of the many people that have made the annual book sale such a huge affair on the fall calendar and in the process they've all helped raise over $430,000 for a new main public library in downtown Guelph. Eventually.

The podcast with these three ladies covers many different facets of the annual sale, as well as the politics and progress of getting that new main library built. We talk about the challenges in putting the sale together year after year, the appeal of books in this modern age, the continued growth of the fundraiser, and whether or not the fans of the book sale will let it end even after the goal of building a new library is achieved.

This is part three of three of the unofficial Politicast literary series after past podcasts with the Eden Mills Writers Festival and Vocamus Press. So shall we talk about selling books now? Let's get into the Politicast.

Friends of the Guelph Public Library are still looking for friends to come out come out and volunteer for the sale, click here if you feel so inclined. The sale itself takes place on Friday October 21 through Sunday October 23 at the old Woods site at 69 Huron St.

For all other updates about the sale, check out the FGPL webpage, or their social media feeds on Facebook and Twitter.

The theme music for the Guelph Politicast is from the KPM Klassics collection by Syd Dale.

The host for the Guelph Politicast is Podbean. Find more episodes of the Politicast here.

Remember that the Politicast Podbean channel is also the host for podcast versions of Open Sources Guelph. The previous Thursday's episode of Open Sources will be posted on Mondays.

Stay tuned for future editions of the Guelph Politicast!