Friends of the Library
Become a member. Be a volunteer. Enjoy seminars, events, and visiting with friends.
Charles Martell Author Lecture Series Lecture Archives Friends of the Library Membership Drive
Who are the Friends?
The Friends of the Library at Sacramento State was founded in 1992 to help the University Library meet the growing and changing needs of the campus and the community. Since its founding, the Friends of the Library has:
Donated over $250,000 to the University Library in grants for the acquisition of books, journals, electronic media, and equipment
Established the Book Bin, a permanent used book sales area on the Library’s lower level
Published the newsletter Bookends
Hosted special events and presentations by well-known authors
Become a Member
Board Leadership
- President Michaeline Veden
- Vice President Eileen Heaser
- Secretary Mary Andrews
- Treasurer Sally Hitchcock
Bookends Editors
- Linda Goff
- Roz Van Auker
Board Members
- Laura Archbold
- Andrea Fiske
- Linda J. Goff
- Arthur Shattuck
- Roz Van Auker
Ex-Officio
- Amy Kautzman, Dean and Director, University Library
- Steven Loya, Director of Planned Giving
- Maria Ramirez, Event Coordinator and Communications Strategist, University Library
Our Mission
To support the University Library by:
- Bringing together individuals and organizations interested in the University Library
- Reaching out to the community and promoting the interests of the University Library
- Providing a forum for the University and local authors, researchers, and readers to meet and discuss their work and interests
- Raising funds to enhance the University Library
Benefits of Membership
Receipt of the Friends newsletter, Bookends
Invitations to library exhibits, lectures, and events
Library borrowing privileges for members at the Sponsor level ($50 and above)
The satisfaction of supporting education in our community
Complimentary parking for Speaker Series
Visit the Book Bin!
Staffed by members of the Friends who volunteer for a few hours per week, the Book Bin sells used copies of books and media in various formats. Proceeds from the Book Bin help fund the Friends annual grants program in support of library collections and services as well as general gifts to the University Library.
Fall 2025
Hours: 10:00 AM to 3:00 PM
September
- Wednesday, 9/3
- Thursday, 9/4
- Wednesday, 9/17
- Thursday, 9/18
October
- Wednesday, 10/1
- Thursday, 10/2
- Wednesday, 10/15
- Thursday, 10/16
November
- Wednesday, 11/5
- Thursday, 11/6
- Wednesday, 11/19
- Thursday, 11/20
December
- Wednesday, 12/3
- Thursday, 12/4
Donate to the Book Bin
Donations are accepted during regular Book Bin hours and by appointment on the last Friday of every month. Please call (916) 278-5954 to schedule an appointment
We Accept
- Hardcover and paperback books for children, teens and adults
- Contemporary and classic fiction
- Popular nonfiction such as cookbooks, biographies, history
- DVD movies
- Audio books on CD
- Music CDs
We Cannot Accept
- Books in poor condition (stained, yellowed, moldy, torn)
- Encyclopedias
- Textbooks
- Readers Digest condensed books
- Outdated reference books
- Books discarded by other libraries
- Abridged audio books
- Audio cassettes and VHS tapes
Donations can only be delivered during regular Book Bin hours or by appointment and may not be left outside the door or placed in our book drops. If you have more than two boxes of books, please call ahead to make sure we can accommodate the donation. Due to space constraints, we may need to decline donations.
Once accepted, donations are property of the Library and cannot be returned to the donor.
Charles Martell Author Lecture Series 2024/2025
Entering its 15th year, the lecture series offers the campus and Sacramento communities the opportunity to engage with authors whose work is timely and thought provoking. All lectures are free to the public and everyone is welcome to join us.
For more information or to request reasonable accommodations, please contact Maria Ramirez at lib-events@csus.edu at least five (5) business days in advance of the event.
James D. Richardson
Thursday, October 31, 2024
The Friends of the University Library begin the 15th year of the Charles Martell Author Lecture Series with local author, James D. Richardson. Richardson’s book, The Abolitionist’s Journal: Memories of an American Antislavery Family.
Over the course of more than twenty years, James D. Richardson and his wife, Lori, retraced the steps of his ancestor, George Richardson (1824-1911), across nine states, uncovering letters, diaries, and more memoirs hidden away. Their journey brought them to the brink of the racial divide in America, revealing how his great-great-grandfather Richardson played a role in the Underground Railroad, served as a chaplain to a Black Union regiment in the Civil War, and founded a college in Texas for the formerly enslaved.
Maureen Buick
Thursday, November 14, 2024
Our second lecture is with Maureen Buick, author of Finding Bomb Boogie: A Daughter’s Search to Rediscover Her Father. This award-winning book is the story of a quiet, young American, a tail gunner on a B-17 aircraft nicknamed “Bomb Boogie,” flying bombing missions over Nazi-occupied Europe, a bomber boy of twenty-one years, scared of heights, parachuting twice out of a plane to his eventual capture by the Germans, the resilient airman held in a prisoner of war camp for twenty-two months who spent his twenty-fourth birthday year on a forced march in one of the coldest winters in over fifty years, the daredevil who rolled down a hill during the march to escape captivity in another prison camp, and the tired, emaciated young man who finally made it home, to fight more battles.
Mary Mackey
Thursday, February 27, 2025
After nearly 6 years of online-only lectures, the Friends of the University Library are returning the Charles Martell Author Lecture series to an in-person event!
Please join us and Sacramento State Emerita English Professor Mary Mackey as shea talks about how extremely high fevers and an inability to calculate risk combined with living in the jungles of Costa Rica and the Amazon, inspired her to write bestselling novels and award-winning poems and screenplays. Her lecture, The Jaguars That Prowl Our Dreams, will include readings from the book that won the 2019 Eric Hoffer Prize for the Best Book Published by a Small Press and selected other works.
Professor Mackey has created an impressive body of work which encompass fourteen published novels, eight collections of poetry, and over a dozen film scripts. She was one of the founders of the Sacramento State English Department’s graduate and undergraduate Creative Writing Programs. In May 2025, Marsh Hawk Press will publish her ninth collection of poetry: In This Burning World: Poems of Love and Apocalypse and she has promised a glimpse of her newest poems as well.
This event will be offered in-person and livestreamed, to register, please select the appropriate registration button.
Lecture Archives
- 10/8/20 – Martell Lecture: A Conversation with Sasha Abramsky
- 10/28/20 – Town & Gown: Making Sense of an Election Like No Other
- 11/17/20 – Town & Gown: Implicit Bias: Ending Systemic Racism One Decision-Maker at a Time
- 12/9/20 – Martell Lecture: Nancy Davis Kho
- 4/15/21 – Martell Lecture: Jennifer Laam
- 9/16/21 – Martell Lecture: Tamara Payne
- 10/26/21 – Martell Lecture: Pam Houston
- 2/3/22 - Martell Lecture: Kim Stanley Robinson
- 4/14/22 - Martell Lecture: Nancy Econome
- 9/22/2022 – Martell Lecture: Lorena V. Márquez
- 10/27/2022 – Martell Lecture: Terri Castaneda
- 2/16/2023 – Martell Lecture: Lee E. Hollingsworth
- 4/25/2023 – Martell Lecture: Jamil Jan Kochai
- 10/5/2023 – Martell Lecture: Mary A. Helmich
- 11/9/2023 – Martell Lecture: Reyna Grande
- 4/2/2024 – Martell Lecture: Allison Gilbert