The Durango Public Library receives on average more than 20,000 visitors every month. In addition to providing free, public access to books and internet access, it offers space for community meetings and puts on a slew of programs that everyone can enjoy.

Those community accommodations require funding. Unbeknown to some, a nonprofit created in the 1980s strictly to bolster library funding, programs and awareness, has been helping the library along.

Friends of the Library was founded as a nonprofit in the mid to late ’80s and was instrumental in helping form the Durango Public Library residents know and love today, FOL Vice President Gail Lovell said.

“By looking at some of the history, it shows that they had a lot of fundraiser lunches and promotions to get money to help start it,” she said. “ … We do support and continue and look to help when there’s budget shortfalls that we can help support the library in that way and we can take donations and grant money that (the library isn’t directly eligible for).”

Last year alone, FOL helped the city of Durango establish its first Poet Laureate program and appointed its first adult and rising Poet Laureates, Esther Belin and Zoe Golden, respectively, last year with a three-year grant funded by the city’s lodgers tax arts and culture fund.

FOL President Mindy Mackey said in an email to members that the nonprofit also gave Durango Public Library $50,000 in 2023 to help fund various programs, including the annual Literary Festival in addition to the Bookmark Project, Library Champion and Page One writing contest, among other summer programs.

The nonprofit group will provide another $65,000 this year, Mackey said. It also earmarked $30,000 in a six-month certificate of deposit in the event of an emergency, and it set aside $10,000 for minor emergencies.

“The FOL is on solid financial ground,” she said in the email. “Going in to 2023 we had $125,711.92. The board agreed there was no need for us to hold that much money in our account. Our primary purpose is to support the library financially and the library had needs they could not meet with their budget.”

Lovell said revenue from Lela’s Bookstore, located directly left inside the library entrance, annual book sale events and donations are the nonprofit’s primary sources of funding. The purpose of the nonprofit is to support library programs and outreach to the community, she said.

She also said FOL gave the library $10,000 a couple of years ago to fund Hoopla, an app and streaming service that streams audiobooks, music, videos and e-books free of charge to people with library cards at participating libraries.

FOL accepts monetary donations, as well as book donations. Older books and books in worn condition are taken to storage and rolled out for book sales. The group holds three book sales a year in March, July and November.

The FOL has 10 board members, more than 420 current members and over 120 volunteer members, Lovell said. The group typically needs between 50 and 60 volunteers to put on a single book sale.

She said membership costs $10 per year, $15 for a family and $200 for lifetime membership, all of which come with early access to book sales. FOL is devising a business membership as well, although details are still being fleshed out.

In addition to membership fees, the library frequently receives donations from community members, sometimes anonymously.

“We are very, very fortunate that there are people in the community that just donate money,” Lovell said. “We get $500 checks, we get $1,000 checks.”

Just recently, a young boy and his mother visited FOL at the library so the boy could donate $5 out of his piggy bank, she said.

She said people’s passion for supporting Durango Public Library is the main driver of donations and memberships. FOL gets enough support through its bookshop, donations and memberships to where it has not needed to resort to other fundraising efforts. Lovell would still like to see membership increase, though.

FOL has a sorting team stationed at the library to receive donated books four days a week. The storage space can store between 9,000 and 10,000 books, and volunteers sort through about 300 to 500 books a week.

Books are sorted by price – $1 to $3 hardbacks, $1 to $2 paperbacks, free selections and so on.

“Durango is such a literate society and … we just get incredible varieties of books, and oftentimes people will donate a very valuable book,” Mackey said.

In the past, she has received books worth $2,000. FOL currently has about 100 books in storage worth $100 a piece. She recalled receiving one book about bird photography that was valued at about $750.

She said books about Colorado mining are usually worth some money, particularly older publications.

“It has to be a niche and has to be in very good condition,” she said.

It also helps if the books are rare and not in large supply on online outlets such as eBay and Amazon.

Volunteers are a core part of the organization, Lovell said.

Sue Mooney has volunteered with FOL since 2008 when she retired from her role as a school librarian at Fort Lewis Mesa Elementary. She works in Lela’s Bookstore three to four times a month.

Reading has always been important to Mooney. She was born and raised in San Francisco, and she’s always been a writer.

She also taught in elementary school education and has a Masters in Instructional Media.

Her husband is a retired school librarian, and their children and grandchildren are “voracious” readers in their own right.

“No matter what’s going on in your life, if you have a book, it just transports you to other places and things that you wouldn’t have thought about,” she said. “ … I absolutely love reading and I love getting kids into reading … I enjoy so much when I volunteer over at work.”

Mooney owns a retired service dog that helped the blind. She brings the dog with her to her FOL shifts at the library. She said studies suggest children reading to dogs while petting them actually helps their language comprehension and fluency.

Mooney and her husband have raised 11 guide dogs or canine companions, and they’ve all spent time in schools with children practicing their reading.

“I work with a lot of the English language learners … I really have seen when I bring her they just you know are so happy to be with her,” she said. “ … We’re so thrilled to see any anything that promotes reading. It’s just one of my passions.”

Mooney said her favorite book genre is fiction, and she is always on the lookout for new authors.

Her favorite book is always whichever one she is currently reading, but at the same time, her advice to readers is if a book doesn’t entertain or capture the imagination, ditch it and find something new.

cburney@durangoherald.com