Friends of the Library

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Become a member. Be a volunteer. Enjoy seminars, events, and visiting with friends.

Charles Martell Author Lecture Series 2022/23 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:

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Donated over $250,000 to the University Library in grants for the acquisition of books, journals, electronic media, and equipment

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Established the Book Bin, a permanent used book sales area on the Library’s lower level

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Published the newsletter Bookends

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Hosted special events and presentations by well-known authors

Become a Member

Board Leadership

  • President Linda J. Goff
  • Vice President Michaeline Veden
  • Secretary Roz Van Auker
  • Treasurer Sally Hitchcock

Bookends Editors

  • Linda Goff
  • Roz Van Auker

Board Members

  • Mary Andrews
  • Andrea Fiske
  • James Fox
  • Terry Kastanis
  • Jean Torcom

Ex-Officio

  • Amy Kautzman, Dean and Director, University Library
  • Maria Ramirez, Event Coordinator and Communications Strategist, University Library

  • Lora Hollingsworth, Sac State Planned Giving

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

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Receipt of the Friends newsletter, Bookends

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Invitations to library exhibits, lectures, and events

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Library borrowing privileges for members at the Sponsor level ($50 and above)

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The satisfaction of supporting education in our community

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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.

Summer 2023

Due to the HVAC upgrade in the library building, the Book Bin will be closed this summer. We will reopen on Wednesday, September 6.

Donate to the Book Bin

The Book Bin is unable to accept donations at this time, we will resume regular activities in the fall.

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 2022/23

Entering its 13th 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.

All lectures held at 1:00 p.m. online via Zoom. Registration is required to attend.

Lorena V. Márquez

Thursday, September 22, 2022

The 22/23 Martell Lecture Series begins on Thursday, September 22 with Dr. Lorena V. Márquez, historian and author of La Gente: Struggles for Empowerment and Community Self-Determination in Sacramento, which highlights the rise of the Chicana/o Movement during the 1960s and 1970s. She illustrates how everyday people, la gente, contested various forms of oppression at school, at work, and in their communities and sought lasting and transformative change. By documenting specific acts of resistance, Márquez shows that the Chicana/o Movement in Sacramento encouraged those who were the most marginalized—the working poor, immigrants, and the undocumented, and the undereducated—to fight for their rights.

Márquez’s book is “a marvelous study of the Chicana/o movement in Sacramento that poses questions about self-determination, activism, and everyday people’s political participation. La Gente is a significant contribution to the historiography of the Chicana/o movement.”  — Erik Bernardino, Journal of American Ethnic History

Watch Recording

Terri Castaneda

Thursday, October 27, 2022

Sacramento State’s very own Professor Terri A. Castaneda is the second speaker on Thursday, October 27. Castaneda’s book, Marie Mason Potts: The Lettered Life of a California Indian Activist, explores the life, challenges, and accomplishments of Marie Mason Potts (1895–1978), a Mountain Maidu woman and one of the most influential California Indian political activists of the 20th century. Castaneda draws on Potts’ work for the Federated Indians of California, the Smoke Signal newspaper, and personal correspondence to privilege Potts’ voice in this exceptional biography.
“It is impossible to share all of her meaning and importance here, but Terri Castaneda has provided us with a detailed view of Marie Potts’s life, her challenges, and her greatest successes as an advocate for California Indian people… Castaneda has given us all something to treasure.”  — News from Native California

Watch Recording

Lee E. Hollingsworth

Thursday, February 16, 2023

Spring 2023 begins with a lecture by Lee E. Hollingsworth, author of A Gold Rush Tragedy: The George Hollingsworth Letters. Based upon personal letters from George Hollingsworth to his wife, Elizabeth, the book chronicles the allure of the Gold Rush and the universal desire to create a better life. This firsthand account gives readers a glimpse into the arduous journey across the United States and into the realities of life in the mid-1800s. The book creates a rich narrative around the hopes, dreams, sacrifices and the strength of character of those who headed west to strike a claim.

A Gold Rush Tragedy was a top ten finalist for the Independent Book Publishers Association’s Benjamin Franklin Award in history.

Watch Recording

Jamil Jan Kochai

Thursday, April 25, 2023

The 22/23 Martell Series concludes with “made at Sac State” author Jamil Jan Kochai for a special conversation. His debut novel, 99 Nights in Logar, is the witty and tender coming-of-age journey of a twelve-year-old boy in contemporary Afghanistan. 99 Nights in Logar was a finalist for the Pen/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel and the DSC Prize for South Asian Literature.

Kochai’s newest work, The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories, a collection of short stories published in July 2022, moves between comedy and tragedy as he follows characters in modern-day Afghanistan and in the Afghan diaspora. The Haunting of Hajji Hotak has been widely celebrated, and the collection is a finalist for the 2022 National Book Award for Fiction.

Watch Recording

Lecture Archives