The Friends of the Library of Los Altos is made up entirely of volunteers. We think you will enjoy helping our community, too.

 Join other book lovers in supporting the library with your time and effort. You can:

For information about how you can volunteer to support our activities contact us at: volunteers@losaltoslibraryfriends.org 

Join the book moving donation team  

• Accept donations: Wednesdays from 2.00-4.00 and/or Saturdays from 10.00-12.00.
• Move donations: From donation site to the Corner (the Friends workspace in the library.)
• Move priced donations: Mondays to Fridays, move boxes from the Corner to the storage sheds. (Your choice of day.) 

Process donated books

• Meet with other volunteers to scan, sort, and price donated books. Books are sorted into approximately 20 different subject categories.

Help at Book Sales

Many volunteers are needed to staff each quarterly book sale, including:

• Pre-sale set up (on the preceding day, and/or during the day before the evening sale): transport books from the sheds to the sale location.
• During the sale: greet customers, keep displays restocked, be an adder or a cashier. Sale volunteers generally work 3 hour shifts.
• Clean up after the sale ends.

Support Internet sales

• Determine if donated books are suitable for listing on our Amazon store. Price and list suitable books.
• Monitor listed prices to maintain competitiveness.
• Check our Amazon store for incoming orders, then fulfill the orders by packing and mailing the books.

• Consolidate the shelves weekly.

Assist with In-Library Ongoing Sales

We offer hundreds of books for sale on the ‘Ongoing Sales’ shelves in the Main library and at Woodland Branch library.  Daily, volunteers refresh the stock on the shelves to ensure that the selection is current and attractively displayed. Join the 'Ongoing Team'!  Shifts are one day a week and flexible.

Staff the library cafe (closed in March 2026)

Cafe volunteers supplied, set out, and inventoried the food we offered.  The Friends Cafe in the Main Library is now closed, as of March 2026. It was a volunteer project started in 1995; a fun project and much appreciated by library users. Closures during covid and during the remodel to the children's library as well as changes in the economic climate made it difficult to keep it going. Thanks to the many, many people who worked hours every week in making the cafe a success!!!

Support the Friends on social media

We have a Facebook page and an Instagram account to help us be engaged with all the members of the Los Altos and Los Altos Hills community. If you are already on the computer and on Facebook or Instagram, this might suit you. And you can do this from home! We could also use help posting to NextDoor to get the word out about Quarterly and Ongoing sales.

For information about how you can volunteer to support our activities contact us at: volunteers@losaltoslibraryfriends.org