Seniors - Age-wise: Profile/Nickole Mook

For someone who still owns her first book, Nickole (Niki) Mook is now busy getting rid of books. Thousands of paperbacks and hardcover books, as well as magazines, records and videos, pass through the doors of The Book Bag every year. Recently I spoke with Niki (which is a little like trying to harness a whirlwind).

AW: When did you start to read?

NM: I could read by the time I went to kindergarten in a one room school 10 miles outside of Norwich, one of the last in the state. My dad was a carpenter and my mother was a former teacher. Our house was full of books and both my parents read to me. I had a lot of earaches as a child and I discovered that reading took my mind off the pain.

By the time Niki was an English major at SUNY Albany, she was “hooked” on books. She married just before her graduation and moved with her Navy husband to Hawaii, where she finished her last three hours of credits at the University of Hawaii.

AW: Did you still read with all that tropical enchantment around?

NM: Well, the first thing I do wherever I move is to get a library card. In Honolulu, every week I walked two miles to the library, carrying two bags of books (for balance) back and forth.

Niki and her husband returned to Albany where she worked for New York State Education, Higher and Continuing Education Department. Although she and her husband moved every two years, Niki always had a local library card. She volunteered in the libraries as well. In Bucks County, Penn. she took over a library position during a staff member’s maternity leave. While in Connecticut she was the librarian for a town library developed by a local women’s club, to find she was back in a one-room schoolhouse.

AW: What else did you do during these years on the move?

NM: Well, I had two children and of course I read to them. Amanda’s first outing was to the library in a snuggle sack. (Amanda is an attorney, most recently an ADA in Rensselaer County; Jeremy is an internationally known urban artist.)

AW: What next?

NM: After my divorce, I moved to Saratoga Springs where I spent 16 years as head of Literacy Volunteers of Saratoga County. When I retired, I was already volunteering in the Book Bag Shop project of the Friends of the Saratoga Springs Public Library. I was asked to submit a resume when the manager’s job opened up, and here I am seven years later.

AW: Tell us a little more about yourself. What do you like to read?

NM: I’ll read anything, except maybe a book about math, but even that if there’s nothing else around! Since I was a teenager I’ve usually had two to three books going at once. Probably a novel, a mystery and a non-fiction book. I recently spent time in Italy, so I’m reading a book about the building of a famous dome in Italy.

The Book Bag Shop at the Saratoga Springs Public Library sells used paperback and hardcover books, videos, tapes and records. Children’s books average 25 cents to two dollars, adult paperbacks range from one dollar to three, and hard covers range from two to five dollar “best buys.” Most are donated by the public, although some are library discards. Magazines are free. Donated books have to be sorted, priced, cleaned, transported, shelved and sold. A small army of 30 to 35 volunteers perform these tasks, usually working two, three or four hour shifts.

AW: Do you need volunteers?

NM: We need sales help on Saturdays or Sundays and some men four times a year in the morning hours when we hold our 10 cent sales. (Niki’s husband, Ed, a former computer hardware expert and current master gardener, helps with these sales.)

AW: Do you have any managerial assistance?

NM: Yes, Jan Lillibridge is the Assistant Manager. She’s an expert on children’s books and functions as store banker.

AW: Who are your patrons?

NM: The general public. We get Skidmore and high school students (summer reading lists), seniors (large print), home schoolers, teachers, hobbyists and crafters, cooks and people looking for foreign language books or have an interest in religion or computers. Do you want me to go on?

AW: No, I understand. What are you greatest job satisfactions?

NM: The substantial amount of profit we turn over to the Friends of the Saratoga Springs Library every year. Seeing a baby we first met in its mother’s tummy reach the age where the child runs in to our children’s section and picks out a book. Finding a book for a customer who has been searching everywhere with no luck.

During her time as the Book Bag manager, Niki has introduced a Black Friday event whose one-day sales equal a usual week’s profits. She has introduced seasonal and theme displays and features books that tie in to current events.

AW: What does the Friends organization do with the money the store brings in?

NM: After overhead costs, the money goes toward the library director’s yearly “wish list.” The funds have been used to decorate the children’s room, enhance the computer lab and support other programs not in the regular library budget.

AW: Finally, I called you a “whirlwind,” but how would you describe yourself?

NM: Well a customer once said of me “You are a surprising person. You’re bookish, but you’re still funny.”

Anyone who wrestles with up to 16 boxes of donated books at a time, often containing the remnants of non-book items (dead mouse, half eaten sandwich) certainly has to have a sense of humor. (And did you notice that Mook rhymes with “book”?