Serving Boone, Blowing Rock, Banner Elk, and other towns of the North Carolina High Country
Founded 05-05-05
February 15, 2007 issue
Stock Your Shelves
Friends of the Library Book Sale February 22 to 24
Story by Kathleen McFadden
You know how you’re always hearing that Americans don’t read anymore? That the Internet has supplanted print? That the literacy rate is suffering?
According to the Friends of the Watauga County Library, that’s just not true around here. The Watauga County Library serves 500 to 600 people per day, and the Friends’ big annual book sale—coming up next week—attracts folks in droves.
Lori Nicklin has coordinated the sale for the past five years. She said that 40 to 50 eager bibliophiles lined up to pay the $5 Friends membership fee for the privilege of getting first pick of the books at the members-only Thursday night sale last year. This year she hopes to see even more.
This year’s Friends’ sale is scheduled for Thursday, February 22, to Saturday, February 24. Hours for members-only night on Thursday are 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. and the good news is that you can become a member at the door. Hours on Friday and Saturday are 9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Last year, the sale raised $9,200, and the Friends are hoping this year to top $10,000. At a buck or fifty cents each for most items, that’s a lot of books. The Friends keep the prices low on purpose. “We want people to read,” Nicklin said. “We want to provide them with books.”
The only expense for the annual sale is the cost of renting a truck to transport the books from the donated storage space to the mall. Except for the truck rental, every penny raised at the sale benefits the library. Along with the annual big sale, the Friends try to maximize proceeds from donated books by maintaining a shelf of books for sale in the library lobby, by selling books online and by holding a mini-sale in the fall. Lobby sales bring in $400 to $500 per month, online sales last year racked up a very respectable $5,000 and last fall’s mini-sale brought in another $2,000.
That money pays for new furniture, programming, equipment, special books and whatever else the library staff needs but can’t cover with the budget. “We try to fill in those areas that are not funded,” Nicklin said, “and we spend the equivalent of what we make every year.”
The logistics of putting on the big annual sale are colossal, involving schedulers, sorters, transporters, set-up folks, replenishers and cashiers. They’re all volunteers—about 75 of them are Friends of the Library and 40 are High Country Christian Home Schoolers.
“Mildred Loretto has done a yeoman’s job of scheduling volunteers for the sale,” Nicklin said, and Dot Barker has scheduled the sorters. One of those sorters is Betty Webb.
Webb has been a Friend of the Library for a decade, and for the past couple of years has helped sort the donations that come into the library in a steady stream. Volunteer sorters like Webb spend a few hours every month classifying books according to broad categories such as fiction, mystery, history, science and sports. “I do it because it’s fun to work with books,” Webb said. The sorters box the books and mark the category on the outside, and another group of volunteers picks up the boxes and transports them to the storage area where they wait until sale time. Among the volunteer sorters are four retired Ph.D.s.
Sorting can be a treasure hunt. Webb has found notes and pictures tucked inside pages and last week found a $10 telephone calling card in a donated book. But sorting can also be a bit of a liability—even if it’s a fun one. “It costs me money every time I come to sort,” Webb said. “I always find a book I want. I run home and read it and then donate it back.”
The Friends and the High Country Christian Home Schoolers, coordinated by Jennie Lanier, will begin setting up at the Boone Mall next Monday night, and Nicklin expressed her gratitude to Mall Manager Heidi Ellis for her help and flexibility. Unlike previous years, the sale will be held in the middle of the mall instead of inside an empty store. Also unlike previous years, this year’s sale will have three checkout stations instead of one, so lines will be shorter and checkout faster.
Like last year, the books will be arranged on 30 tables, and Nicklin estimated that this year’s haul numbers 20,000 to 25,000 volumes. That’s a big change from when Nicklin first started coordinating the sale and the donations only filled 18 tables. The books are all new donations. The Friends do not carry books from one year’s sale to another. Volunteers will replenish the tables all day long.
Among this year’s treasures are a wide variety of children’s books (hard covers are 50 cents; soft covers are 25 cents), a good selection of large-print books, 60 tapes of children’s songs and stories donated by a retired schoolteacher, old bibles, Will and Ariel Durant’s series on history, a variety of coffee table books and cookbooks galore. In addition, shoppers will find books on tape, videos, CDs and DVDs.
Bargain bonanza begins late on Saturday afternoon when the Friends will offer bags of books for $1.
Buy a book, or two or twenty and support our wonderful library.
Want To Go?
Dates: Thursday, February 22, to Saturday, February 24
Times: 5:30 to 9:00 p.m. Thursday/9:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Location: Boone Mall
Cost: $1 for hardbacks/$0.50 for paperbacks/specialty books are priced separately
How To Help the Friends
The Friends of the Library ask for patrons’ help in making this year’s sale run smoothly and have announced an open slot for a book-loving volunteer.
• Pay $5 to join the organization whether you come to the Thursday night members-only sale or not.
• Please do not ask the volunteers to start the sale early.
• Bring your own bag(s) for your books.
• Be prepared to pay with cash or check. The Friends are not able to accept debit or credit cards.
• Do not bring book donations to the sale. Please drop donations off at the library. And please donate—books, tapes, CDs, DVDs.
• The Friends need a volunteer to handle online book sales. If you’re comfortable with technology, love books and have the time, this position is a super way to help the organization. Online sales translate into big bucks for the library and big benefits for patrons.