Before Mt. Lebanon Public Library was even born, it had a small circle of friends. “People in the community knew we needed a library,” said Susan Tracey, board president of the Friends of Mt. Lebanon Public Library. The original group of friends worked with the Boy Scouts, the Lions Club and local government to make the library a reality in 1932.
The Friends of Mt. Lebanon Public Library is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) that raises money to help support programs such as the summer reading programs for children and adults; the French, Spanish, Chinese and Italian conversation groups; the library’s speaker series and off-site tours. The group also underwrites the difference in cost for big-ticket items and other extras not included in the library’s annual budget.
“Every year, the library gives us a wish list,” Tracey said.
This year’s list includes $23,953 for youth programs and services; $19,100 for adult programs and services; $13,600 for the Book Stop and $4,500 for the Media Stop, places for new releases and high-demand items; $1,750 for software and $4,768 for additional library expenses, for a total of $67,671.
Tracey has been part of the Friends for about 15 years. “From childhood, I’ve always been a library person,” she said.
In 2011, Tracey retired from her position as assistant vice president of the Citizens Bank’s government group. She began spending so much time at the library that the then-president of the Friends, Pat Carr, asked her if she wanted to join the group. She eventually became volunteer coordinator, and joined the Friends’ board in 2016.
Currently, the Friends of Mt. Lebanon Public Library’s membership stands at 977.
If you would like to join, you can download an application on the Friends section of the library’s website, mtlebanonlibrary.org [1], and pay a minimum of $15 a year. Some members choose to pay more to join. Dues bring in about $25,000 a year.
Raising the money
From 1968 to 2007, the Friends’ biggest event was Twice Sold Tales, an annual used book sale that brought in as much as $60,000. In 2008, the group transitioned from the once-a-year event to a year-round used bookstore, The Book Cellar, in the library’s lower level.
For a few years, the Friends also raised money through a couple of annual beer-themed events — Brews for a Chili Night in January and the Beer Garden Bash in August, which brought in between $6,000 and $7,000 each. Those volunteer-heavy parties were beginning to get cumbersome to stage even before the COVID-19 pandemic, which essentially put an end to the events. The pandemic also temporarily closed The Book Cellar.
“When COVID started, we had absolutely no way to make money, and our sole purpose is to make money for the library,” said Tracey.
One of the Friends members suggested an online bookstore, modeled after what the Friends of the Library of Hawaii was doing. “It was very successful from the beginning,” Tracey said, “which is good because we had no other option.”
Book Cellar patrons can shop in person or buy their books online at mt-lebanon-book-cellar.myshopify.com [2], and pick them up at the library. Originally, Amazon handled the online portion, but shipping costs were eating into the profits. In 2025, The Book Cellar brought in a total of $85,048 — $11,147 of which came from online sales.
Books on the Book Cellar shelves generally sell for around $2. The online shop is the place to go for newer or more popular books, or rare items, such as a signed first edition of Scott Carson’s The Chill, for $40, or $30 for a complete set of George R.R. Martin’s seven-volume Song of Ice and Fire series, the basis of Game of Thrones. (Editor’s note: Martin fans know this is a definitive complete set, since we long ago realized there’s a better chance of the Dothraki becoming a tribe of peace-loving farmers than there is of George ever finishing that last volume.)
Along with books and audio, you can pick up jigsaw puzzles, jewelry, greeting cards and more stuff at the bookstore. When Victorian Manner closed its Washington Road location last year, owner Christine Zacor, a friend of Tracey, donated her unsold stock of greeting cards, plus the carousel they were on, to the Friends.
“There are people who come to the library just for The Book Cellar,” said library director Robyn Vittek. “It’s an excellent book shop, and currently it’s the only bookstore in Mt. Lebanon.”
The Book Cellar relies heavily on Friends volunteers to collect, sort and evaluate the conditions of the donated items, and to work the counter. Some of the 140 volunteers who work at the store have specialties — cookbooks, history, children’s literature and other areas — that help the store decide what to keep and what to pass on. Books that aren’t a good fit for The Book Cellar go to Better World Books, a nonprofit that operates its own online bookstore, as well as donating books to other literary nonprofits.
“We call Better World when we have 40 boxes of books for them,” said Tracey.
Spending the money
The Friends accounted for a large portion of the library’s $4.2 million renovation in 1995-1997. The courtyard in the back of the library was funded almost entirely by the Friends, through book sales and other donations.
The Friends dedicated the proceeds from the first two Twice Sold Tales in the newly renovated library to the courtyard project. Architect James Scarlett designed the courtyard pro bono, and the courtyard opened in 2000.
More recently, the Friends paid the lion’s share of the cost of the 2022 purchase of the library’s book bike and cart, an electric bike that pulls a trailer filled with books and other library materials, and the lockers outside the front entrance, a no-contact option for patrons to pick up their items.
Vittek said all she had to do was ask.
“I was telling them we were kind of interested in getting lockers, because ever since COVID, we’d been putting brown paper bags [with requested library items] on a table in the front vestibule, and we’d really like to continue [no-contact pickup] in a more reasonable way, with 24/7 access. They just cut us a check.”
Vittek said the lockers were paid for entirely by donated funds. In addition to the check from the Friends, several members of the group kicked in some of their own money to close the deal.
“Our Friends are not just donating money; they’re advocating, they’re helping out with events, they really go above and beyond every day to make our library special.”
Helping others succeed
In addition to her role here, Tracey is president of Pennsylvania Citizens for Better Libraries, an advocacy group that, among other things, gives assistance to friends of the library groups across the commonwealth.
“In my quietest moments, I think what we do here is extraordinary, and if we can help others, it’s just really gratifying,” she said.
One of the things Tracey wants to accomplish in her term as president of the PCBL is to choose a new quote for the first page of the group’s website. While the current quote, from Andrew Carnegie, is apt: “A library outranks any one thing a community can do to benefit its people,” the one Tracey has in mind, from Albert Einstein, really sets the tone: “The only thing you absolutely have to know is the location of the library.”