The Shaw Island Library and Historical Society will celebrate the 50th anniversary of its founding with several events on Saturday, July 16. The organization is among the last entirely community-financed and operated library/historical societies in the state.

The celebration begins at 11 a.m. with the library’s annual book sale, followed at 1 p.m. by its annual meeting and a presentation by noted Western author Molly Gloss. Both will be held on the library and museum grounds.

The celebration resumes at 5:30 p.m. with an all-island potluck and contra and square dance, which is how most island events were celebrated 50 years ago. The evening, at the Shaw Community Building, will also include a tribute to the organization’s founders and its early years.

The title of Molly Gloss’s talk is “Romancing the West: How I fell in love with the cowboy hero and myth of the West and why I’ve spent my writing life trying to reimagine it as a deeper, truer story about the heroism of ordinary lives.” Gloss is a fourth-generation Oregonian.

Her books include “The Jump-Off Creek,” “The Dazzle of the Day,” “Wild Life,” “Hearts of Horses” and “Falling From Horses.” Her work has earned numerous awards, including an Oregon Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Booksellers Award, the PEN West Fiction Prize, the James Tiptree Jr. Award; and a Whiting Writers Award.

The evening event will feature well-known contra and square-dance caller Marlin Prowell and his band Wild Ginger. Both events are open to all.