Sorting through books donated to the South County Regional Library, Dorothea Meldner, a volunteer with Friends of the Library, organizes them Friday by type and condition. The volunteer group holds book sales through the year to help raise money for the local library.

When Dorothea Meldner moved to the United States from Germany 25 years ago, she brought 100 bookcases with her. "My husband told me I had to use the library more because I can't singlehandedly support the publishing world on two continents," she said, laughing. "When we moved here, one of my first tasks was to find myself a library."

At the South County Regional Library on Three Oaks Parkway in Estero, Meldner found more than the 166,000 books, CDs, DVDs and other items available for checkout. She found the Friends.

The Friends of the South County Regional Library is a volunteer group that raises money to buy extras for the library that are not included in the Lee County Library System budget. The 14 month old group has about 175 members, including families and groups.

All of the 11 libraries in the Lee County Library System have Friends groups, said library spokeswoman Heather O'Connell.

The Friends of the South County Regional Library held multiple book sales last year, their largest fundraisers, said Cas Obie, vice president of the Friends group.

This year, they will also host luncheons and a concert series in honor of the library's tenth anniversary, he said. Several authors are planned to speak at the luncheons, he said. Connie Brown, mother of "The Da Vinci Code" author Dan Brown, was a presenter last year, he said.

The first extra the group bought for the library was a projection machine for presentations, he said. The group also purchases items for the children's section, and they might look into some capital improvements in the future, he said, although he did not know specifics.

The Friends were scheduled to unveil their new Web site — http://friendsofscrl.org — at 7 p.m. Tuesday, June 14, at the library.

"We want to make this a great library in Lee County," Obie said.

The Friends keep a "First Dibs" shelf at the entrance to the library where people can purchase hard and soft cover best sellers for $1 or $2. First Dibs works on the honor system, with people placing their money directly in a wooden box mounted on the wall, Meldner said. The shelf has averaged about $150 per month, she said.

Meldner said she joined Friends because she wanted to become active in her community through her love of reading.

As a young girl, she said, her father began reading her "Pippi Longstocking," a tale about the adventures of a redheaded, pigtailwearing girl with a heart of gold.