Next Book Donation Dropoff June 27th! The Friends are having another curbside book dropoff on Saturday June 27th. There will be Friends staff outside to help unload and donate your books. ...... All genres are needed. This is one of our main routes of fundraising. Thank you again for supporting your community by supporting Friends of the Library!
Tok shelves are full! More will be added soon!
Wednesday, July 1st Books Between Bites - The Dictionary People (see below)
Newer book price increases - 2025 and 2026 hardbacks are now $7 and 25-26 paperbacks are $4. But we still have a majority of $1 hardbacks and tons of 50 cent paperbacks.
New - 2026 Annual FOL Membership Application 2026 FOL Membership Form Membership forms with payment may be mailed to "Friends of the Library, 130 N. Franklin St., Decatur, IL 62523" or brought into our Books & Beyond bookstore during business hours as listed in the letter.
FOL Phone Number - We have a phone number you can use to call us. Call the Friends at 217-421-9733.
Please join us on Wednesday, July 1st, 2026, at 12:15 in the Decatur Public Library's Madden Auditorium for Books Between Bites.
Book: The Dictionary People - A book explaining or translating, usu. in alphabetical order, words of a language or languages. II fig., A person or thing regarded as a repository of knowledge, convenient for consultation” from the Oxford English Dictionary. People regularly use dictionaries in their various forms, so the July 1 Books Between Bites will offer insights into the creation of what many consider the most important English language repository of words, their definitions, and their etymologies, The Oxford English Dictionary. Sarah Ogilvie examines the development of the OED from an unusual perspective in her 2023 The Dictionary People: The Unsung Heroes Who Created the Oxford English Dictionary. Ogilvie organizes her exploration alphabetically with chapter titles such as “H for Hopeless Contributors,” “S for Suffragists, and “Z for Zealots.” While she does not have space to focus on all the contributors, Ogilvie shares how the definitions and usages were compiled and the stories of those who toiled for sometimes a decade to amass hundreds of entries and others who spent only a week for a dozen entries. We will learn about Professor James Murray, one of the lead directors of the OED project, and spend time on Dr. W. C. Minor, who made thousands of contributions while confined to the Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum. These fascinating stories Ogilvie investigated while serving as one of the more recent editors of the OED.
Author: Sarah Ogilvie - Sarah Ogilvie teaches at the University of Oxford, and specializes in language, dictionaries, and technology. As a lexicographer she has been an editor at the Oxford English Dictionary and was Chief Editor of Oxford Dictionaries in Australia. As a technologist she has worked in Silicon Valley at Lab 126, Amazon's innovation lab, where she was part of the team that developed the Kindle in international languages. She originally studied computer science and mathematics before taking her doctorate in Linguistics at the University of Oxford, and then taught at Cambridge and Stanford.
Presenter: July’s presenter is Teena Zindel-McWilliams, Director of Institutional and Academic Planning at Richland Community College. A regular presenter at Books Between Bites, Teena is a lover of words, sentences, and books about books, she is always eager to share insights about the people who do not seek the spotlight but who should be recognized for contributions to great events..
Books Between Bites is a free program at the Decatur Public Library, sponsored by Friends of the Decatur Public Library
We have added a second book tok bookcase! No holds on these- first come first served. "You should go buy The House in the Cerulean Sea." ...... Bryan say it's excellent!
Book sales are on the main floor of the Decatur Public Library. Go in the main entrance, then go left to our bookstore. Hardback books are only $1,and paperbacks are 50 cents. 2025 and 2026 hardbacks are $7, and 2025 -2026 paperbacks are $4 Special books and other items are priced as marked
Sale Days and Times - Monday from 10:30am - 2:30pm
Tuesdays from 10:30am - 2:30pm
Thursdays from 3pm - 6:30pm
Saturdays sales are on the 2nd and 4th Saturdays every month from 9:30am - 12:30pm