The Bookmobile will not be at any stops this week for scheduled maintenance. We will resume a normal schedule Tuesday, May 28.

Foundation News

We share with you new and innovative ways to give to the library and we shine the spotlight on donors’ contributions. Plus, discover the difference your gift makes and read news from The Library Foundation Board of Trustees and the Wilder Society.

Recent Foundation News Blog Posts

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Your Place – A Letter to Donors and Library Supporters

“Gorgeous facilities, up-to-date technology, wonderful staff!”–Joe Jarvis, library user   Your Gift Can Make a Difference to a Child’s Success A whole generation of youngsters is falling behind in reading. Could your child or grandchild be one of these kids? It may surprise you to hear that more than two-thirds of the nation’s fourth-graders are [...]

New Foundation Officers and Board Member Begin Terms

The Library Foundation has announced its officers for 2011. They include Steve Page, chair, J. Patrick Brazil, vice chair, and Jeff Wietharn, treasurer. Michelle Cuevas-Stubblefield was elected to a second three-year term. Marianna Nothern , Jeanne Slusher, and Roger L. Underwood were elected to their first three-year terms. Marianna Nothern is a retired school teacher [...]

Local Emerging Artist: The Library is My Key to the Universe

Google has nothing on Andrew “Mack” Schroer’s favorite search engine, the 168,600-square-foot, librarian-powered engine that is the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library. “Yeah, I could Google it, but that just scratches the surface,” he said. Mack is always looking for inspiration. The 25-year-old Berryton resident paints, draws, sculpts, and works in the film and [...]

Supporting a ‘Topeka Treasure’

Supporting a good cause is like breathing to Marilyn Ault – you just have to do it. She lists the Topeka and Shawnee County Public Library among her causes, which also include Let’s Help, Inc., Marian Clinic and Doorstep of Topeka. “I love the library,” she said. “I asked myself ‘what Topeka treasure needs my [...]

Marion’s Magnificent Gift of Beautiful Glass

Staff members of the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery recently unpacked an extraordinary gift of art glass, antique paperweights and Steuben glass, from the estate of Marion D. Stevenson. Marion, a long-time resident of Vero Beach, Fla., never visited our library. But she had learned that the Sabatini Gallery has long held a collection of more [...]

Library Fulfilled Woman’s Love of Reading, Long After Her Vision Failed

Late in her life, Wanda Parr could only see fuzzy silhouettes of objects and humans. Macular degeneration had taken the details out of life. The longtime library customer always enjoyed reading, and Parr soon learned about a library service that would fulfill her need for literature even as her eyesight failed. Books on tape, provided [...]

Man on a Mission: Leo Taylor

“I believe that an individual can make a difference with focus, energy and perseverance,” says Leo Taylor. Retired since 2000, the former corrections professional has spent considerable time in the library as both a library user and as a volunteer chairing The Library Foundation’s nominating committee. His mission: to read a selected list of books, [...]

Homework Center, a nice match for woman’s passion for children

The late Noelle Drechsel, a Topeka library champion and Wilder Society member, understood the value of the library as a learning institution. Noelle passed away in October of 2009 at the age of 100, but her memory is alive and well with every success story that comes out of our Oveson-Campbell Homework Center. During her [...]

An Art Gift from the Western Sorosis Club

The library is fortunate to have not only individual donors, but also groups, clubs and organizations that recognize the value our library gives to the community. One such group is the Western Sorosis Club which graciously funded the purchase of two photos by Jim Richardson for the Alice C. Sabatini Gallery. Photographer Jim Richardson is best [...]

A Library Legend Addresses the Future

As a retired employee of TSCPL, I was excited to know  of the founding of the Edward and Mary Wilder Society. Established by The Library Foundation, this organization recognizes those who have (or will be) remembering the library through their wills or trusts.  I was pleased to be asked to become a member of the society, as I [...]

Tim Elmer: A Volunteer’s Story

It’s April, and time again to thank the nearly 400 volunteers who give their time and talent to the library. For one volunteer, giving his time to the library has also given him something back that he thought he had lost. When a near-fatal automobile accident in 2003 presented Tim Elmer with long-term rehabilitation challenges, [...]