Spring Literary Luncheon: In May, the annual Spring Literary Luncheon featured award-winning author, Sara Gruen. Nearly 200 guests enjoyed a beautiful lunch at the historic Wisconsin Club as well as a presentation and reading from her book Water for Elephants.
Docents: The Docent Tour Program had another great year with 12 docents providing free tours at the magnificent Central Library for more than 400 visitors. The MPL docents provide tours each Saturday at 1:30 p.m. throughout the year.
Author Visits: In partnership with Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops, the Friends presented authors David Isay, Caroline Kennedy and others.
Book Sales: Book sales at Central Library
and the neighborhood branches continued to raise significant
funds which are granted back to the library to purchase needed
materials and support library programs. Support is also provided by
profits from The Bookseller, the used bookstore located in the
Central Library. The Bookseller offers used, new and collectable
books and media, staffed by dedicated volunteers from the Friends
of the Milwaukee Public Library
Playaway Audio Books: Thanks to our generous Friends of the Milwaukee Public Library, the neighborhood and Central libraries will each receive new digital audio book collections. The library submitted a single-grant request to the Friends for $10,000 to purchase new “Playaway” audio books. Playaways are the digital content of an entire book pre-loaded into a pocket-size player. There is no need to load CD’s or cassette tapes; you just press “play” and begin listening. Very simple to operate and light to carry, the library is excited to be able to offer this type of media to its patrons. These will hit the shelves in early 2008.
