Q:  Have long have you been volunteering with the Friends?   

A:  I started volunteering with the Friends when the Bookstore first opened on Palmetto Park Road. I had worked and volunteered in various libraries around the country for a number of years and missed it. I volunteered at an elementary school library in Madison, Wisconsin and at public library in Lincoln, Nebraska, and worked at the media center at Pope John Paul II High School here in Boca Raton.     

Q: What's your favorite thing about volunteering at the bookstore?     

A: I enjoy discussing books with the customers; I have discovered some really interesting books that way. I also enjoy organizing and stocking the shelves, another good way to discover books. Every time you work in the bookstore is like having a birthday; you get to open some very unique and wonderful "presents."

Q:  What are your favorite books that the bookstore sells and why?  

A:  I'm a somewhat eclectic reader. I read both fiction and non-fiction from science to religion to cookbooks to art. Right now, I'm reading an inspirational book by Emmet Fox, Gone for Good by Harlan Coben and a unique book, Color, A Natural History of the Palette, all of which I bought at the bookstore.  

Q: What is something people might not know about you?   

A: Among the first things each of my family members did upon moving to Boca Raton was to get a library card. We have visited the library weekly ever since. My daughters grew up loving to read, and now my one-year-old granddaughter continues in that tradition. Her personal library is supplemented continually by books I buy at the bookstore and send to her.  

Q:  What do think is an underused feature of the library?

A:  The interlibrary loan system is underused. The resources of the library could greatly expand for the library patrons, if more of them knew about and used this system.   The interlibrary loan service allows our library patrons to borrow books or journal articles from other libraries that are not part of the Boca Raton Public Library system.   A library patron can request the book or journal article at the library's information desk, or visit the library's website and fill out an online form (http://www.bocalibrary.org/ill_main.html).