Cozily tucked under the grand staircase of the library is The Library Store. For quite some time the Friends of the Library have used this space as a bookstore. The Friends take donations of gently used books, audiobooks on CD, DVDs and music CDs. They sort through the donations, price them, organize them in catagories and shelve them in their bookstore. The proceeds from the store are given to the library to purchase all sorts of new materials. The Friends also generate a large amount of money for new library materials at the massive Annual Book Sale (coming up on October 17-19…mark you calendars!).
If running this operation sounds like a lot of work, it is. Recently I had a chance to talk about the store with Sherri Garber, the President of the Friends of the Library.
Andre: How many people volunteer for the Library Store?
Sherri: About 25 for the bookstore but many more if you count those who work at the annual booksale. If you include them it’s about 80 people total.
Andre: The “store” used to be two sets of shelves by the Welcome Desk on the first floor of the library. When did it move into its current space?
Sherri: Back in March 2009…and it continues to grow and thrive even though naysayers said that ebooks would put us out of business.
Andre: I see donations coming into the library all the time. How many books/DVDs/CDs are donated to the library each month?
Sherri: This is something I’ve often wondered about. A very rough estimate is 5,000 items a month.
Andre: What’s the most unusual item you have seen donated to the sale?
Sherri: Playboy magazine…in Braille.
Andre: What’s the rarest/most expensive item donated?
Sherri: During my tenure, I’ll say it’s “The Public Papers and Addresses of Franklin D. Roosevelt” inscribed by FDR to the Public Printer. We sold it at auction for $2,800.
Andre: What’s the largest collection ever donated?
Sherri: I don’t have an exact number but we have received collections well over 2,000 volumes.
Andre: Anything else you would like to add?
Sherri: In addition to the materials you see at the Library Store we also resell textbooks and participate in a discard program for books that do not meet our criteria so they do not end up in landfill.
Thank you, Sherri and all of the volunteers for all your hard work running this very successful store. And if you would like to donate books, DVDs, or CDs to the Friends of the Library you can drop them off anytime the library is open.