The Library Book Sale

I've been asked to become the Library Fundraising Chair on the Friends' Executive Board. It's fancier than it sounds. I love the folks on it, they have been great and welcoming. I was a Gray Public Library Trustee and volunteer back before I started The Monument Newspaper, and I worked to help out with their book sale too so I was interested to see how "my" new library does their sale.

Hard covers are tagged at $1 and soft covers are 50 cents. In Gray the books were less expensive but I think people will pay $1 for a hardcover, I know, I bought 8 of them!

The Friends ask a local publishing house to donate, and they receive 41 boxes of fairly new books, all hard covers. Handling all those books is hard so they've made an arrangement with the local jail, who send out inmates to unload the skid and tote in the boxes. The inmates all come away with a free book of their choice.

Expensive or rare books are sold on half.com (an ebay outlet) or librarybooksales.org for closer to their retail or market price.

The Gray library has a wonderful downstairs in which the book sale books are always at the ready arranged alphabetically on shelves. Most libraries do not have such luxurious space and this one is no exception. The day that the skid arrived folding banquet tables are set up in the meeting room and as the inmates brought in the books the volunteers were ready and we unpacked them onto the tables. The idea at first was to get them out of boxes and then when the empties were taken away the books were alphabetized.

They know what they are doing, for sure, and within three hours over a thousand books were unpacked and alphebetized. I'm staffing the checkout table Thursday night on the Friends' preview night, and again on Friday from 10-12 when it opens to the public. Happy reading and remember to support your library!