The Friends of the Library of the State of Hawaii is celebrating Love Your Library month in February and this week, members of the non-profit organization will visit legislators, cookies in hand, to encourage them to maintain funding for libraries, which will suffer double-digit budget cuts in coming months, according to Friends board president Susan A. Li.

Friends executive director Byrde Cestare and members of the Friends board will be at the State Capitol on Wednesday to talk to legislators about the threat of library closures, staffing and hours reductions and delays in purchases of materials and upgrades to technology resources.

The Friends, which host an annual summertime book sale to benefit the libraries and maintain a bookmobile the remainder of the year, use sale proceeds and the Friends' endowment fund to assist libraries. Funds go to conference travel for librarians, materials purchases and special projects, but the group is prohibited from paying directly for staff services, the most significant portion of the library budget.

Friends also coordinates the librarian of the year and excellence in library services awards programs.

The Friends will hold their annual meeting at 11:30 a.m. Sunday at the Hawaii State Library, featuring a talk by author Bob Sigall. Information on Friends membership and activities: 536-4174 or visit the headquarters at 690 Pohukaina.