HELENA — The Holter Museum of Art is filled with a fraction of former employee David Spencer’s nearly 20,000 books to share his collection and memory with the community.

Friends recall the impact David Spencer had on their lives:

Christina Barbachano, the executive director of the Holter Museum of Art says she remembers David for his willingness to share his love for reading.

“He was always was able to connect with people through the books he was reading and brought that wealth of knowledge to the museum,” Barbachano said.

David Spencer was the Holter’s longest serving employee acting as historian, front desk greeter, and volunteer for 36 years.

When Spencer passed away in November his friends wanted to make sure that his prized book collection was safe and still told the stories that were on the pages but also Spencer’s story.

Barbachano and one of Spencer's friends, Marisa Diaz-Waian share what his vast collection of books says about who Spencer was.

“It just tells us about what is important to us and how we see ourselves, it is our outer trappings," Barbachano says. “It is like a finger print of our internal world and David was quite eclectic," Diaz-Waian says.

Family, friends, and volunteers spent hundreds of hours boxing books to create David’s Bookstore to help keep his memory alive and pay for his end of life expenses.

Thousands of books are currently calling the Holter home until they find a new home in hands like yours.

Books can be individually purchased or you can purchase a $25 mystery box. There are also custom reusable tote bags with a sketch of David on them that can be filled up for 25 dollars.

Diaz-Waian says the goal of David's Bookstore is, “Just sort of this continued and shared love for learning and opening up our internal worlds and minds to ideas and how we give back in the world and I just think there is a big part of seeing David present here amongst the books within our community and keeping that alive.”

David’s Bookstore will be open during normal museum hours through February 25th and at the annual Helena Art Walk in April.