President’s Message

Michele Vass, President

Hi Friends!

I am SO proud of our Placer County Library team. They reimagined Summer Reading this year and as a result, our community recorded over 2-MILLION-minutes, blowing away the 1-million-minute goal! My family made numerous trips to the library during Summer Reading and my niece (aka the Littlest Friend of the Library) earned quite a few seashells following the “The Mermaid” challenge. Her favorite books this year were The Monsters on the Bus by Sarah Albee and Chicka Chicka Boom Boom by Bill Martin Jr.

The Friends are happy to have contributed $2,000 towards all the awesome prizes and we’d like to thank our partner, the Neighborhood Walmart on Pacific Street for their monetary contribution to Summer Reading as well. Next time you’re shopping there please tell the manager on duty that you appreciate their support of our Rocklin Library.

You’ve already heard no doubt that the Rocklin Library is open on Mondays again after losing those hours over 8 years ago. We are fortunate to be joining the Auburn Library in being open on Sundays from 1:00-5:00pm! We’ve also got a few new faces in Rocklin as our staff has grown; please say hello to our new staff members and let them know you’re a part of the Friends!

The Friends are pleased to host our Spooky Storytime at the Station on October 28^th @ 4:00pm, at the Rocklin Road Fire Station. We are looking forward to your awesome costumes and some Halloween stories read by our Rocklin Firefighters. We’ll give you a Trick-or-Treating safety refresher and hand out some candy too!

We have had some great donations of used books recently, so go check out the bookstore next time you’re at the library. We also have one more Super Surplus Book Sale for the year, so mark your calendars for November 2 and we’ll see you at the Rocklin Parks and Recreation Office (aka the former Fifth Street Library). If you’re a current member, you get to shop first at 9:00am with the sale opening to the public at 9:30am. We’ll have great holiday gifts for all the book lovers on your list.

I can’t thank you enough for your contributions and support of the Placer County Library System by being a member of the Rocklin Friends of the Library. We can’t do our advocacy, outreach, and collection development without you.

In Service,

Michele 

Exciting things are happening at your Rocklin Library! Here are some highlights...

Yes, Rocklin and Auburn Library are open seven days a week! The Grand Opening on Sunday, August 18, was both festive and bustling! We connected with longtime library supporters, Friends of the Library, and community leaders. Visiting the library has become a new Sunday tradition for families looking for activities, as well as a study spot for college students, with both Sierra College and William Jessup Universities closed on Sundays.

The 2024 Summer Reading Program (SRP) was a tremendous success, both in participation and the enthusiasm it sparked. The community more than doubled the total minutes read compared to the previous year. This achievement was made possible by the innovative vision of our Systemwide Programming Librarian, Felicia, who boldly reimagined and transformed the SRP for 2024.

English as a Second Language (ESL) classes have returned to the Rocklin Library. Twice a week, a certified educator from the Roseville Adult School leads students in learning conversational and written English for everyday life. The class has gained popularity as word of the program spreads throughout South and Mid Placer communities. We look forward to strengthening our partnership with local educators and sharing the many resources the library has to offer.

The Read to a Dog program aims to build confidence in young readers by providing a supportive, non-judgmental audience. It became so popular that we moved it from the 'tween corner’ to the community room. To minimize distractions, therapy dogs were positioned in different corners of the room, ensuring readers and pre-readers wouldn’t be tempted to just pet them. We also implemented time limits to give everyone a fair chance to read to a dog without interruption. After we made changes to the Read to a Dog program, the handlers expressed their appreciation. Laura, the lead for Capital Therapy Dogs, remarked, "We’re grateful for the new space! It will make it much easier to achieve the one-on-one reading experience that has always been our goal."

"Read to a Dog" Members:

 The Rocklin Friends of the Library will host our second book sale of the year from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturday, Nov. 3 in the Parks and Recreation building on Fifth Street (Johnson-Springview Park).

Members can shop from 9 a.m. to 9:30 a.m. when the sale opens to the public. After 1 p.m., everything will be sold at half-price.

Book lovers will find a wide variety of gently used fiction and non-fiction books – hardbacks selling for $2 and paperbacks for $1. Also on sale will be jigsaw puzzles for $1 and CDs and DVDs for $2.

Children’s picture books will be sold for 50 cents each. Chapter books for beginning readers through teens will be available for $1.

If you’re jonesing to add a book to your home library before the semi-annual sale, check out our used bookstore just inside the entrance to the library. Volunteers keep the store stocked with fiction and non-fiction books as well as CDs and DVDs and children’s books.

We also have a cart featuring a wide variety of books for 50 cents. During the last week of each month, that cart is filled with books on sale for 25 cents.

Payments can be dropped in a slot inside the store.

Donations of gently used books can be dropped in the slot next to the bookstore entrance. Please note that we cannot accept textbooks, computer manuals, Bibles, dictionaries/thesauruses or encyclopedias. To arrange for the donation of a large volume of books, visit rocklinfriends.org.

In addition to the bookstore and the semi-annual book sales, we sponsor several Little Free Libraries located in Rocklin parks.

The Placer County library staff uses proceeds to purchase adult and children’s books as well as add special materials to the library collection.

  To join the Dream Team or to donate books, send an email to info@rocklinfriends.org.

To become a member of the Friends of the Library, visit www.rocklinfriends.org. Memberships start at $10. 

Do you need something special this Halloween for your little trick-or-treater? We’ve got limited quantities of new Halloween and Fall themed board books for only $5 each. Direct message us to purchase your desired titles before we sell out! Thanks for supporting our Rocklin Library!

The mission of Rocklin Friends of the Library is to generate support for the

Rocklin Library and Placer County library services and to promote community

interest in libraries, reading, and lifelong learning.