Friends of SOPL
The friendly Friends of the
South Orange Public Library
With your help, the Friends fund everyday programs and services in the Library — new books, reading programs, museum passes, and other Library services — including the initial fee for BCCLS — for the South Orange community.
Join The Friends Join The Friends of SOPL Facebook GroupThe Friends of the South Orange Public Library is a 501(c)3 registered charitable organization. Your contribution is tax deductible as provided by law.
Jigsaw Puzzle Sale!
Saturday January 10, 10 am – 2pm
Baird Community Center, 5 Mead Street, South Orange
Are you a puzzler? Have you already done every jigsaw puzzle in your house? Purchase new-to-you jigsaw puzzles at the Friends first puzzle sale and benefit the Library,
We’re also raffling off a brand new jigsaw puzzle table!
To donate your gently-used jigsaw puzzles, drop them off at any of these South Orange locations:
Library, 298 Walton Avenue
Library, Baird Center at 5 Mead Street
9 East Clark Place
Upcoming events!
Jigsaw Puzzle Sale, Saturday January 10
Valentine’s Jewelry Sale, Saturday February 7
What’s It Worth? Antiques Appraisal Day, Saturday March 7
Spring Jewelry Sale, Saturday April 25 and Sunday April 26
All at the Baird, 5 Mead Street, South Orange
Holiday Jewelry Sale a Terrific Success!
Thank you to everyone who helped the Friends raise lots of lovely money for the SO Public Library — to the staff of the South Orange Library and the Recreation Department, to our many volunteers for their time and hard work, to our local businesses which contributed money and food, and to the many shoppers who came, found great jewelry at great prices and went home happy. A special thanks to those who donated jewelry; you made the sale possible.
Future sales, Baird Community Center:
Saturday February 7, Valentine’s Day Pop-up Sale, one day only
Saturday April 25 and Sunday April 26, Spring Jewelry Sale
Sign up for our email list for jewelry sales and other Friends events.
And please consider donating your no-longer-wanted jewelry — we are actively seeking jewelry donations for our next sale. Jewelry donations are accepted all year round: Details here.
Get FREE admission to local museums and gardens courtesy of the Friends
South Orange residents can borrow museum passes for free admission from the South Orange Public Library. All passes are funded by your friendly Friends of the Library, and most passes admit a family. Call the Library for pickup location, 973-762-0230
Borrow a pass for the Brooklyn Botanic Garden, Cooper Hewitt Museum, the Frick Collection, Guggenheim Museum, Montclair Art Museum, Morris Museum, New York Historical Society, Newark Museum of Art, Storm King Art Center, Thomas Edison Museum, and for the young among us, the Children’s Museum of Manhattan and the Yogi Berra Museum in Montclair.
Sign out a pass from the Library and visit a wonderful museum for free.
Friends Awarded Dodge Foundation Grant
The Friends received a discretionary grant made by a staff member of the Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation, under a program that provides Foundation employees the opportunity to recommend a nonprofit for special funding. A South Orange parent and library patron who works at the Foundation and requested to be anonymous recommended the Friends for the grant.
The grant will provide a significant boost to the Friends’ current goals: meeting funding requests from the Library in 2025 and building a fund to purchase an Opening Day Collection – a large collection of new books and other materials – when the Library moves into its newly-renovated building. The Friends are honored to receive the grant and thrilled at what it helps us do for the Library.
The Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation is a private foundation based in New Jersey that supports, centers, and connects communities and changemakers who are working toward a just and equitable state.
Friends Home Delivery Service
South Orange residents: the Friends will deliver library books and DVDs to your home while the Library’s Scotland Road building is closed for renovations, and will pick them up from you two or three weeks later. Home delivery is provided to residents of South Orange for whom travel to the Library’s temporary locations at 298 Walton Avenue and the Baird Community Center presents a specific hardship. The Friends are pleased to provide home delivery to the South Orange community.
- Borrowing limit: 10 library items (including adult books, children’s books, and DVDs).
- All deliveries and pick-ups will take place on Thursdays afternoons.
BIG NEWS! SOPL has joined BCCLS, the Bergen County Cooperative Library System
The Friends are happy to announce that we recently gave our biggest gift ever to the Library – we funded the large initial cost to join BCCLS.
By being part of BCCLS, South Orange Library cardholders now have access to over 5 million books to borrow from nearby libraries, plus 60,000 digital books. You can order books from your mobile device or computer for 48-hour delivery to SOPL.
During the Library’s upcoming expansion and renovation, the Library will continue buying new books and providing programs. And when it’s all done, they will need to stock up with LOTS of new books, and will need the Friend’s help. Now we need to rebuild our funds to get ready.
Please help us – Friend the Library and support our bringing BCCLS to South Orange. The Friends have been able to provide thousands of supplemental dollars for Library books and programs every year, and the Library will need our help more than ever in the years to come.
Donate to the Friends
New Bylaws and Board Elected at General Member Meeting June 2025:
The general membership of the Friends passed new bylaws and elected a Board of Directors at a June 9, 2025 meeting held at the Baird Community Center.
The Friends Ongoing Book Sale in the Library is suspended until the Library renovation and expansion is complete.
Please donate your gently-used books to Better World Books via the green and white bin next to the South Orange Public Library parking lot, 65 Scotland Road. The Scotland Road building is under renovation, but the BWB bin is open.
Your donated books turn into money for the Library and help spread literacy around the world. Books are picked up Mon/Wed/Fri. If the bin is full, please come back at another time, as books left out in the weather lose all value.
DONATE
-
Donate to the Friends
-
Thanks to our jewelry sales and the great good generosity of the South Orange community, the Friends raised money to fund the Library’s membership in BCCLS, as well paying for new books, Library programs, and Library services. We are very grateful to you and thank you sincerely for helping the Library–but the Library can always use more support. Please Donate, and thank you.
-
Donate jewelry to the Friends Jewelry Sales
-
Support SOPL by donating your no-longer-wanted jewelry to the Friends Jewelry Sales.
Learn More
-
Donate books
-
Donate your gently-used books via the green and white Better Worlds Books bin, next to the South Orange Public Library parking lot, between Vose Avenue and Scotland Road.
Your donated books turn into money for the Library and help spread literacy around the world. Books are picked up Mon/Wed/Fri; if the bin is full, please come back at another time, as books left out in the weather lose all value.
ABOUT US
-
Mission and Bylaws
-
Mission
The Friends of the South Orange Public Library is a 501(c)3 registered charitable organization formed for literary and educational purposes. Through fundraising and volunteerism, we support and enhance the services, collections, programs, facilities, and activities of the library to ensure its responsiveness to our community. We promote literacy and library-related activities in South Orange and the wider community to fulfill the library’s informational and cultural mission.
-
Meetings
-
Unless otherwise indicated, the Friends meet in the dining room at 110 Vose Avenue, South Orange, on the 2nd Monday of each month, 5:15-6:30 pm. All are welcome!
2025 meetings:
January 13
February 10
March 10
April 7
May — CANCELED
June 9 — GENERAL MEETING OF FRIENDS MEMBERS, to vote on Friends Board and Friends Bylaws, 7pm, Baird Community Center
July 8 — please note this meeting is on TUESDAY at 5:15pm, 110 Vose Avenue
August 11
September 8
October 13
November 10
December 8
-
Board of Directors and Officers
-
Board of Directors
Elected June 9, 2025Kathie Abrams, 3-year term (President)
Virginia Archibald, 2-year term
David Ascher, 2-year term
Lenore Berkman, 1-year term
Karen Boss, 3-year term
Pamela Bristah, 3-year term (Treasurer)
Helen Cox, 1-year term
Sandra Dickerson, 1-year term
Pearl Feder, 2-year term
Diane Fish, 2-year term
Mary Forbes, 2-year term
Marcia Kaiser, 3-year term
Pam Karr, 2-year term (Secretary)
Harriett Katz, 1-year term
Sandy Lublin, 1-year term
Tonia Moore, 3-year term
Jennalee Rainbolt, 3-year term (Vice President)
Muriel Watt, 1-year term
Rita Weiss, 1-year term
-
Committees and Working Groups
-
Antiques Appraisal Event Committee – Sandra Dickerson (chair), Pam Karr, Rita Weiss, Diane Fish, Jill Faherty, Jennalee Rainbolt, Lee Schonberg
Book Swap Committee – Jennalee Rainbolt (chair), Marcia Kaiser, Pam Karr, Lee Schonberg, Kathie Abrams ex officio
Bylaws Committee – Kathie Abrams (chair), Karen Boss, Mary Forbes, Marcia Kaiser, Lee Schonberg, Pamela Bristah, Sandra Dickerson, Tonia Moore
Gifts Committee – Tonia Moore (chair), Jennalee Rainbolt, Marcia Kaiser, Kathie Abrams ex officio
Jewelry Sale Committee – Sandra Dickerson (chair), Kathie Abrams, Pamela Bristah, Karen Boss
Library Positivity Committee – Marcia Kaiser (chair), Kathie Abrams, Tonia Moore
Membership Committee – Jennalee Rainbolt (chair), Kathie Abrams, Andrea Cernichiari, Pam Karr
Publicity Committee — Pearl Feder, Jennalee Rainbolt, Pamela Bristah
-
Contact
-
Friends of SOPL
65 Scotland Road, South Orange, NJ 07079
973-762-0230 (Library)
friends@sopl.orgPresident: Kathie Abrams
Vice President: Jennalee Rainbolt
Secretary: Pam Karr
Treasurer: Pamela Bristah
FRIENDS NEWS
Friends Home Delivery Service
South Orange residents: the Friends will deliver library books and DVDs to your home while the Library’s Scotland Road building is closed for renovations, and will pick them up from you two or three weeks later. Home delivery is provided to residents of South Orange for whom travel to the Library’s temporary locations at 298 Walton Avenue and the Baird Community Center presents a specific hardship. The Friends are pleased to provide home delivery to the South Orange community.
- Borrowing limit: 10 library items (including adult books, children’s books, and DVDs).
- All deliveries and pick-ups will take place on Thursdays afternoons.
Jewelry Sales
Support SOPL by donating your no-longer-wanted bling and gems to the Friends Jewelry Sales.
Since summer 2021, the Friends have funded…
- the large initial cost for the Library to join BCCLS, a library network that makes over 5 million books from nearby libraries borrow-able by South Orange residents
- passes for free admission to area museums, gardens, and beaches for South Orange residents
- summer reading programs from 2021 through 2025 for children, teens and adults, including the purchase of new books on school summer reading lists and related programs for children, books and programs for adults and teens, and ice cream treats for everyone
- significant numbers of new library books, particularly in 2024 and 2025: bestsellers and literary classics, travel guides, adult and teen books on social justice, equity, and inclusion, manga and graphic novels, test preparation books, and new children’s books, including picture books that support inclusion and nonfiction books on popular topics
- two encyclopedias: the World Book and Britannica Online
- a major donation to the SOPL Foundation, seed money for their capital campaign for our future Library
Support the Library
Please join us to help the South Orange Public Library continue its services to our community.
