Successful Bucks Buy Books Campaign

The Hibbing Public Library’s fourth annual Bucks Buy Books program recently ended with over $7,000 added to the new books fund of the library.

Created by the Library Board of Trustees to supplement budget cuts imposed by the city in 2005, Bucks Buy Books encourages donors — principally through donations added to Hibbing Public Utilities (HPU) bills — to contribute monies to the new books budget of the library.

“We really appreciate the support of the community in getting behind this program,” commented Librarian Ginny Richmond as she tabulated the dollars and number of donors.

“The program has really raised the awareness of our needs,” she continued. “People contribute through their HPU bills, through sending or dropping off checks and cash, through endowments or wills, and even through the penny jar on the front desk.”

In the four years since its inception, Bucks Buy Books has added over $30,000 to the adult and children’s book budgets — "an impressive amount of money,” Richmond noted thankfully.

With the average cost of a new book running somewhere between $20 to $25, the campaign this year will see an infusion of well over 300 new titles appearing on the shelves of the Hibbing Public Library.

Library Board of Trustees chair Mike Marincel added that the success “says a lot about the community and the importance people place on reading and the role of the library.”

The above article was written by Library Board Member Dan Bergan and published in the Sunday, Hibbing Daily Tribune.