2025 marks the fortieth year for the Davis Book Menders. It all began in 1985, when Peggy Epstein organized and led a small group. Upon her retirement in 2010, Karen McCluskey took over. Now, Net Heberlein, Betsey Ballash, Jeannette Clark,Elly Fairclough and Karen meet every Tuesday from 9:00 a.m. - 3:00 p.m. and address the many problems of our heavily used collection. They clean, laminate, repair dust jackets and paperback covers, fix torn pages, glue in loose pages and tighten book blocks. Sometimes a book has to be literally taken apart and put back together. Almost every book can be saved and returned to service. Since 1985, nearly 150,000 books have been repaired. Menders are continually improving their skills and upgrading materials.
In May of 2024, Menders began the Book Repair Cafe. The first Tuesday of each month between 10:00 a.m. and 12:00 p.m., community members can bring their well-loved books and Menders will provide no-cost help, instruction and supplies to fix them. Come by some Tuesday morning and say hello. | 
