The Astoria Library Friends Association will open a new bookstore within the library
The Astoria Public Library went through a major renovation that culminated this fall.
Published in the Discover Our Coast Magazine on 6:08 am Thursday, April 2, 2026
By Heather Douglas
Library aficionado and former teacher Patsy Oser loves to spread the joy of reading. For eight years, she read books to students at Astor Elementary School starting in 2012 twice a week. “I read over 1500 stories and used my own books. I beat the gym teacher in popularity,” she joked.
Oser is Vice Chair of the Astoria Library Friends Association (ALFA), a group supporting library programs and projects of the Astoria Public Library since 1982. The group’s new bookstore will open to the public 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Saturday April 4 at the Astoria Public Library, 450 10th St. For updates and information as the bookstore evolves, visit: astorialibraryfriends.org.
Oser, who moved to Astoria from Chicago in 2011, had the idea of creating a book store within the newly renovated library from a library in Wilmette, Illinois that sold used books in the basement generating thousands of dollars of revenue each year to help support their library programs. Oser liked the idea. “Why can’t we do that in Astoria,” she said.
Starting out, the new bookstore will sell used books, but there may be more offerings in the future. Pat Thomas, Chair of ALFA, is pleased with the idea and how it supports the mission of ALFA. “Our main job is to support the library programs where the city budget doesn’t. By selling our books if we have a special project, this will provide extra money to do that,” she said.
Thomas added that people who love libraries look for places to donate and buy used books. In turn, the sales help fund library programs. “This is a great way for us to raise money for library programs and events. Whatever we can do to raise money — used books are a great way to do that.”
ALFA Opens Bookshop
Published in the Daily Astorian 6:58 pm Thursday, April 2, 2026
“You want more programs?” asked Patsy Oser, the vice president of the Astor Library Friends Association. “Buy some books.”
After hundreds of hours of planning and Dewey Decimal System organizing, ALFA officially opens its bookshop in the public library on Saturday. The store will only be open on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. until more volunteers are recruited.
Customers are encouraged to pay with cash but can pay with a card for a small fee. All proceeds will directly support library projects like the 10th Street Stage summer concert series, the Library of Things and supplying resources for young readers.
ALFA’s bookshop committee, aka the three musketeers, is comprised of Miki Frace, Gina Mattioda and Oser. Oser proposed the idea a few years ago. She was inspired by a downstairs bookstore in a Chicago library. Oser lived in Chicago prior to moving to Astoria.
“This is a happy place run by three happy people,” Oser said.
Astoria’s new library bookshop seemingly has every genre, including a substantial collection of picture books. M of the picture books are like new, and sell for as little as $1 each. The goal, according to Frace, is to keep prices low so more kids can buy books.
“Picture books are the biggie, because they’re ‘lap books,’” said Frace. “That’s where you learn to love reading because you’re sitting on somebody’s lap who loves you, who’s reading to you.”
“It’s the safest place on the planet,” Oser added. “You learn to associate books with comfort and security.”
In addition to children’s books, the bookshop will sell used hardbacks for $3 each or two for $5 — and paperbacks for $2 each.
“Top-shelf” items, what the shopkeepers call “treasures,” are priced a bit higher, up to $15 per book.
“My thrill is, from 1 to 5, you learn to read. From then on, you read to learn,” said Mattioda. During what she calls “these harsh times,” Mattioda said it is important for people to read and develop their beliefs on their own. “The bookshop is a slice of that.”
With several hundred books, the bookshop has no shortage of reading material, from Jane Austen, to coffee table books, to nautical diaries and even young adult options. Not to mention, books on local Astoria history.
On Tuesday night, ALFA members got a sneak peek and had the opportunity to purchase items in the bookshop and its unshelved inventory. Patricia Staton-Thomas, ALFA president, said the response was beyond anything she could have imagined and it reminded her that “things are well in the world.”
The store organizers said the looks on shoppers’ faces when they discovered new books to cherish made all their hours of preparation worth it. They shared that one gentleman took home two beautiful French cooking books for his coffee table and a collection of Audubon drawings. “He was like a little kid at Christmas,” Frace said.
For her grandniece, an emerging art teacher, Oser purchased a couple of books. One was “a beautiful book on butterflies,” and the other, on Dale Chihuly’s art. “A book has always been a gift,” Oser said.
Frace bought “World’s Most Dangerous,” a book by Michael Haglund about the history of Columbia River bar pilots, one of whom was a good friend before he passed. Mattioda said she has been enjoying William Kittredge’s “The Nature of Generosity,” which she is borrowing from the bookshop’s inventory.
While one of the perks of the bookshop is not having to worry about due dates, Frace said she will bring the book back for someone else to explore when she (and her husband, who she said can’t put it down) is done with it.
“Books are temporary friends in our lives,” Frace said. Beyond a localized community resource, the Astoria Public Library bookshop may become a hub for international book exchanges, with tourists visiting year-round. “What if you’re on a cruise and you finish your book?” Oser wondered.
Some of the shop’s inventory is old library books, but most of it comes from private donations. For locals interested in sharing their “old friends” with the community, or earning a tax deduction, the Bookshop Committee welcomes donations of books, DVDs and CDs that are in good shape. At this time, they are not accepting magazines, dictionaries or encyclopedias.
The State of ALFA
Astoria Library Friends Association
Annual Meeting
March 31, 2026
Welcome to the Astoria Library Friends Association annual membership meeting. We are ALFA, for short, and I am Pat Thomas, ALFA board Chair. I am thrilled to see so many people here tonight in our newly renovated space, and hope that we can answer your questions about ALFA.
Mission Statement:
The Astor Library Friends Association (ALFA) is a 501 (c)(3) volunteer-run, non-profit organization that provides resources and funding for community programming beyond the scope of the library's budget.
Over the year the library underwent renovation, so to ALFA worked to revitalize itself. We have added new board members (and lost valued, long-time members) as we revamp and renew our goals. Thanks to our webmaster Fred Pot, we have added a website—astorlibraryfriends.org—and are updating our membership database. Spurred on by our grant from United for Libraries/Penguin Random House, and a major donation from Jeff Newenhoff of City Lumber, we have purchased gardening equipment for our Library of Things.
Board members Patsy Oser, Gina Mattioda and Miki Frace have spearheaded the organization and opening of ALFA's new Bookshop. The Bookshop will be open Saturdays from 10:30-2:30. Book donations are welcome (no magazines, encyclopedias, or dog-eared book), please, preferably during Bookshop hours so that we don't overburden the librarians.
Treasurer Dave Ambrose reports that ALFA's copy machine is generating pre-renovation revenue again for library programs. Later in 2026 we plan to start a membership drive to help expand our contributions to the library. All this to help bring more and better programs and services free to the community.
To continue, we need the help of past, present and future ALFA members. Most of our contact information is more than ten years old. If you are a past member, please contact us (info@astorlibraryfriends.org) so that we may include you in our mailings. To help attract new members and encourage current Friends participation, we have set a regular meeting time of the second Wednesday of each month at 2:30. We plan to schedule special meetings for those who can't attend during regular business hours, so please let us know what is good for you.
And, last but not least, we are searching for new people. Do you love books, have ideas and a few hours each month? We want you! Most importantly we are looking for volunteers with database, technical, social media, and bookkeeping skills. We need volunteers for the Bookshop, people to help set up events, people to help maintain the Library of Things. We are looking for event cookie bakers! Most importantly, we are looking for people with ideas and the desire to help support the library.
Look for ALFA members at library events, at the Bookshop, contact us by email, through the website, (www.astorlibraryfriends.org) or become a members by filling out a remittance envelope at the library—we look forward to talking with you. And, we now have ALFA buttons., showing off our logo .Be among the first to show your support of ALFA and the library by buying one tonight!
Patricia Thomas
ALFA Board Chair
Annual Membership Meeting
Astoria Library Friends Association (ALFA) invites past, present and prospective members to their annual membership meeting on March 31 at 5:30 in the Astoria Public Library, 450 10th Street in Astoria.
A brief informational and business meeting will be followed by The Book of the Dead, a presentation by Mac Burns chronicling Astoria's more colorful coroner's reports.
Refreshments will be provided. Paid up, renewing, and newly joining members will get early access to the new ALFA Bookshop following the meeting.
ALFA Awarded Grant
Astor Library Friends Association (ALFA) was recently awarded a $500.00 grant for rural and small libraries from United for Libraries and Penguin Random House. This money will be used to purchase gardening books and tools which can be checked out from the newly renovated library in the fall. ALFA plans to match the grant with another $500.00 in local donations. People can join, donate, and learn about ALFA at their new website www.astorlibraryfriends.org . Donations by check may be made at the library.
ALFA is a volunteer run, non-profit organization that provides resources and funding for community programming beyond the scope of the library's budget. ALFA finances its activities through an ongoing book sale at the library, the copy machine, donations, and member fees.
United for Libraries is a national network of enthusiastic library supporters who believe in the importance of libraries as the social and intellectual centers of communities and campuses. No one has a stronger voice for libraries than those who use them, raise money for them, and govern them. By uniting these voices, library supporters everywhere will become a real force to be reckoned with at the local, state, and national.
The State of ALFA
Annual Meeting Message from the Chair
April 9,2025
Hello and welcome to the annual meeting of the Astor Library Friends Association—also known as ALFA. This is our 43rd year as a 501 (c) (3) non-profit organization. My name is Pat Thomas, the Interim President of ALFA, and I would like to thank the Columbia River Maritime Museum for donating this meetings space today while our library is under renovation.
It is fortuitous that this year our meeting falls during National Library week, April 6-12, a week that comes with an increased focus on amplifying the invaluable role that libraries fill in society.
In addition, Take Action for Libraries Day is on Friday April 10. As you probably know, Library funding is in danger at the federal level, making this a crucial time to write, call, or visit your legislators. Links on the American Library Association ( www.ala.org ) and United for Libraries websites help make this contact process easy.
We also have National Librarians Day to look forward to on April 16, a day when we want to give extra thanks to the intrepid and hard-working Astoria librarians and Library Director, who have been working under duress (and umbrellas!) and in reduced conditions for a long time now, both waiting for the renovation to begin, and now waiting for it to be over.
This year, besides supporting library programming, purchasing magazine subscriptions, and maintaining the copy machine, ALFA has accomplished a lot within the organization. Last fall we had a hugely successful book sale.
And thanks in large part to new member/volunteer Fred Pot, our new website is up and running. It is still a work in progress but is already providing information and attracting attention, and donations! All people paying their dues online become members, but we are still working out how to acknowledge this properly on the website. In the process we will be rebuilding our membership contact list. ALFA membership cards will be in the works soon and will be mailed out to all members, so please re-up or join us as new members by using the website—it will help to streamline our mailing list and accounting procedures—and we promise to send you only vital ALFA information.
Any other donations to keep our library growing—whether one-time, single, recurring or memorials, will be gratefully received and appreciated. We rely on longtime supporters and are looking for members to help support the Friends as we support the library. Cash donations may be made to any ALFA member and at the library. We donate our time, but your donations are just as, if not more, important to our mission to aid the library, its staff, and patrons.
ALFA's Board is also working on updating the bylaws, including our amendment vote today.
But here's our really BIG news! We recently learned that our application for the American Library Association/Random House small rural libraries grant was accepted, and that we will soon be awarded $500.00 toward our new Library of Things, a wide-ranging project beginning next fall—
literally from the ground up—when the library reopens.
The Things, in this case, will be gardening tools that can be checked out from the library. The tools will be available in conjunction with upcoming gardening classes, and a seed bank, along with community partnerships including The Food Web—food preparation, cooking, and preserving classes along with the appropriate equipment (dehydrators, canners, mixers) that can be checked out of the library, and the OSU Extension and Master Gardeners, all to help build food resiliency in the county. As you may know, over 1/3 of our area's residents experience food insecurity, numbers which we aim to reduce by helping community members become more knowledgeable and resilient.
ALFA will match the grant funding for tools with another $500. $250 will purchase gardening books, and $250 is earmarked for programming, outreach materials, and additional gardening equipment. My desire is that we can raise another $1000.00 for the project by the time it begins next fall. Suzanne will fill you in on the exciting community partnerships that have grown out of this venture.
Thank you to the ALFA Board, Friends, and volunteers who have helped make this year a success. And thank you to all potential Friends who might find a home in this valuable community organization. Any organization is only as strong as its members.
Patricia Thomas
ALFA Board Interim Chair
25% off bread at Blue Scorcher
Present your Astoria Public Library Card & receive 25% off bread at Blue Scorcher
Library Building Renovation
It all begins with an idea.
Here is a link to the Community Presentation, March 7, 2024 presentation Slides
The video of this presentation is here.
