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05/30/2017 12:00 AMThe Friends of the Chester Library want your gently used books and DVDs for the annual June Book Sale, which begins on Friday, June 9.
“The book sale is our main fundraiser,” said Library Friend and organizer Diane Lindsay. “We have four a year, and it’s where most of our income comes from.”
The other sales take place in January, around the holidays, and during the Chester Fair. The sales all depend on people donating books and DVDS in good condition in order to stock the sales. Lindsay has been organizing them for more than 10 years.
When it comes to donated materials, the community never fails to deliver, she said— but there are some rules to consider when combing through shelves.
“If its covered with dust or mold or water damage from sitting in a box, we don’t want it. We’ll just have to throw it out. We want books that people will want to buy,” said Lindsay.
In addition to rejecting materials in poor condition, the Friends won’t accept VHS tapes, computer books, textbooks, or magazines. Everything else is fair game.
“The donations vary based on who is cleaning out what each year. One year we received a lot of horse books and Beatles books. Another year it was a lot of books on architecture,” said Lindsay. “We’re hoping that people will be selling a lot of books at the Town Wide Tag Sale [on May 27], and then bring what is left to us.
“We pull books that might be worth more money, but we try to keep everything affordable,” said Lindsay. “Hardback and paperback adult books are $1, and small paperbacks are 50 cents. The children’s books are half that price, so 50 cents for hardbacks and 25 cents for paperbacks.”
Donations are accepted during library hours until two days before the sale—Wednesday, June 7. The Friends group asks that boxes of books are not left of the steps— the library staff will help those who need help bringing in their books from the parking lot.
Once the collection is closed, things get crazy. The books are sorted the day before the sale by volunteers, as there is no space available in the library to do it ahead of time.
“I’ve been doing this for a while. I enjoy it. Every once in a while when moving boxes from place to place, I think, ‘Why am I doing this?’ It gets crazy, but it works,” said Lindsay.
The Friends of the Chester Library Book Sale opens Friday, June 9 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. and will run for approximately two weeks during normal library hours. The cut off for donations is Wednesday, June 7. For more information about donating materials or volunteering at the sale, call Diane Lindsay at 860-526-2443.