When I called up the library to talk to one of the legendary “Friends” I was told the person in question was “elbows deep in books.”

There is a cat named Cosmo who resides in the library. Cosmo showed up seven or eight years ago and his picture regularly appears in the local weekly newspaper and is featured on a bunch of tee shirts (i.e. library swag) hanging on the wall behind the library’s front desk. I happen to myself be the proud owner of one of these tee shirts.

I have rarely if ever spotted Cosmo, the library cat, who reportedly “sleeps a lot” - oh, that explains it – but apparently the library staff cares deeply about Cosmo and the books in equal measure.

The ones who care the most, the “Friends”, are as elusive as the cat, but not because they sleep a lot. Actually, it’s the opposite: A hardworking bunch of volunteers, they come in several times a month and quietly put in hours on end culling books, selling books, giving books away, accepting books, and finding new ways to benefit the library and, as per their nonprofit status, arrange for funding in ways the library itself, which is funded by Grand County, cannot.

Library staffer Rae Vinson tells me that there is no way the library could manage all of what they do without the Friends. Essentially, there is not a whole lot of space for new books. To get those newcomers on the shelves you have to do something with the old ones. That’s a fact. And then there are those who bring in boxes of old books. “We never tell people no,” says Charlotte Hurley, who manages the library’s children’s section. “We say thank you and look at every book that comes in.”

Treasurer Cynthia Smith has been an active member since the beginning. She tells me the group meets once or twice a month, while a dedicated core of seven to ten members come in, usually on Tuesdays, to do the actual work of finding a way to move books around and sell them to raise money for the library, or, in a pinch, find ways to give them back to the community at places like the Care Center, the Senior Center, even the airport. Smith herself spends several hours a week at the library.

There are events, day-long book sales and designated days when you can “bring a bag and fill it for a dollar!”.

And then there is the library’s airy lobby, boasting a thoughtful and attractively arranged collection of what Hurley terms “the cream of the crop”: hardcovers, CDs, DVDs and audio books ($1), as well as paperbacks and children’s books for a modest 50 cents.

“We try to find creative ways of earning funds,” Smith says. Every penny raised from book sales goes directly to the library coffers and has purchased items like the locally crafted wood and metal benches outside the library’s front entrance; the shade cloth that luxuriously envelops the library’s outdoor courtyard, the swag featuring Cosmo, the actual shelves in the lobby, iPads and Kindles available for checkout, and video equipment for the Castle Valley branch to show movies. The Friends also supports summer reading programs for children and adults.

There are reportedly “finds” lurking in the lobby’s eclectic treasure trove, including the occasional rare book, kept in a locked case in the lobby.

The library (435-259-1111) does welcome new Friends –

And don’t forget to mention you read about it in the Moab Happenings!

Note: An extensive repair of the library’s HVAC system could result in partial closures this month. I am assured they will remain open as much as possible and in a pinch will move some operations to the Teen Center across the way on the corner of Center St. and 300 East.

I am also assured that Cosmo will be just fine through it all.