Friends of the Danbury Public Library Set Up New Sorting Home

The Friends of the Danbury Public Library have a new home at 30 Main St. for sorting books before their annual October book sale.

Dozens of people stopped by Saturday to drop off books, and as each car arrived, volunteers rolled the boxes into the building and down to the basement for sorting. Fiction and non-fiction went into one room, and children's books went into a second.

"I'd love to thank Danbury residents," said Tanya Shriver Castiglione, president of the Friends of the Danbury Library. "We had a very successful book drive. It should keep us busy for a while."

The Friends had to move from their old location at the library, because of renovations to the space, which will become a coffee shop as part of a new Danbury Innovation Center.

"It's smaller, and we're getting used to it," said Rob Feinson, chairman of the annual book sale. Feinson said the change requires some adjusting. The old space had enough room to store books after they were sorted. In the new space, there isn't enough room for sorted books. Volunteers sort nearly 100,000 books before the sale, and the friends are always looking for volunteers who love books. After the books are sorted, they will be moved to another space off Mill Plain Road. That step is still being organized.