The Friends of the Library Book Sale

Posted June 4, 2013 by Julie Steenson

The majority of my weekend was occupied by the Friends of the Library Book Sale at the library where I work. Most people don’t give much thought to library sponsored book sales, other than, “Do I have books to donate?” and “Oh, such great deals to fill (and overfill) my book shelves!”  Like many other public library Friends’ groups, our library’s Friends raise money for all kinds of programming expenses and museum passes, and we rely heavily on their continued support and generosity, especially in these lean fiscal times.  The most vital piece of the Book Sale that I had, until recently, overlooked was how much this was a community event and what community really means for public libraries.

Here are all the pieces of COMMUNITY that came together to make our Book Sale a great success:

• Donors – So many members of our community cleaned out their homes and donated great books and movies.
• Town support – The Firefighters and the Community Church shared their tables with us so we had a great organized space in our beautiful library community room.
• Boy Scouts – We could not have done it without you!  The town’s boy scouts came over the night before to move all the heavy boxes of books into the sale location, and again after the sale to help clean up.
• Volunteers – Many members of the community showed up to set up tables and organize materials for the sale.  Others helped to man the check-out table and keep things running smoothly the day of the sale.
• Giving back – My library director has a strong sense of community and made gifts of many items to smaller libraries, and the prison and halfway house where I volunteer.
• Patrons – I saw regular library patrons and many new faces, of all ages.  A most memorable shopper was about eight years old with a pink purse and a determination to acquire as many Junie B. Jones books as we could find.
• The Garden Club Plant Swap happened right outside on our lawn at the same time!
• The Transfer Station – Even my dump run to the “Used Room” with the unsold encyclopedia sets had a sweet sense of community as the transfer station employees helped to unload my car, in the hope that someone will give those encyclopedias a home.

It was a weekend that celebrated the best of a small town community library!