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.

The Friends of the South Orange Public Library is a 501(c)3 registered charitable organization. Your contribution is tax deductible as provided by law.

Free Book Swap! Bring a book, take a book!!

Saturday October 24, from 1-4pm
The Baird Porch, 5 Mead Street, South Orange

Please bring up to 10 books (no encyclopedias or dictionaries) in good condition to SWAP! This event is completely free. 

Children are especially encouraged to participate – bring your kids’ no-longer-wanted books, and bring your kids!

Sign up to hear about book swaps and other Friends events.

Friends Holiday Jewelry Sale — November 14-15

The Friends Holiday Jewelry Sale is our biggest sale of the year, with every kind of jewelry, priced to sell – fine boutique jewelry, sterling silver pieces, designer jewelry, costume jewelry – something for everyone. Do good by doing well – your purchases will fund the Library’s Opening Day Collection, a large collection of all-new books for the historic opening of the new library.
Saturday November 14 from 10 am until 5 pm
Sunday November 15 from 1 pm until 4 pm
Baird Community Center, South Orange

Sign up to hear about jewelry sales and other Friends events.

Donate your no-longer-wanted jewelry and help build the Opening Day Collection! The Friends 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.

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.

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.

Learn More

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