MALF - Great Ideas

Booksales
compiled by Joan Larson

Once again I would like to thank everyone who responded to my question of what to do with the books that are left after a used book sale. I put the responses together and, while the suggestions may not fit your situation exactly, perhaps the ideas will trigger something in your mind that will work in your community. To start out, a number of people commented that no matter what you do, used book sales are a lot of work!

Getting ready for a used book sale.

Look for a location for the book sale that will allow you time to re-sort books after the sale is over for dispersal to different places. To reduce the number of left over books start before the sale begins. Several said they limit what they will accept—no Reader’s Digest condensed books, no textbooks, no encyclopedia sets, no weekly news magazines and no other magazines older than 5 years. Set your own rules. Books should be sorted as they are donated. Mildewed and torn books, books without covers or marked up pages are discarded at that time.

The book sale.

Towards the end of the sale, set a certain time, i.e. the last day or the last 2 hours and sell a "Bag of Books for a Buck" or $2 or even $3 a bag-- brown paper grocery bags. One group uses a broad-tip Sharpie marker to make a mark across the page tops on each book at the end of the sale. If there are already two previous marks, they know it's been out for their "by the bag" sale three times, so they pull it (unless stock is REALLY low). They assume if it hasn't sold yet, it's never going to. Then the books that might sell are stored for the next sale.

Make the remainder available free to whomever wants them. After the book sale, a variety of social service providers and non-profit can be invited to visit the sale site, say from 9 to 11 a.m. the next day and take the books they want BEFORE packing them up for recycling. Those invited included local food bank, county jail staff, other city and county departments, home schoolers, school librarians (when they shopped earlier, books were half price for them), providers of free meals and clothing, WIC, homeless shelters, shelters for women and children, Veteran’s groups! (The VW Hall always sent several members and they selected materials and took 20-50 boxes to V.A. Hospitals in Minnesota and Wisconsin.). There is no charge for these books taken after the sale and it indicates a good faith effort to make the best possible use of tax-funded library materials and donated items. If this is promoted in advance and held annually, agencies and home schoolers anticipate that it will happen, the event can weed the material — and generate good will.

One small Friends group reported that they have their used book sale in a semi trailer outfitted with shelves and lights. Sorting is done one day a week in the month before the sale and then just left in the truck for the next sale. One problem has been finding somewhere for the "book truck" to live.

What to do with the leftovers.

The books that are still is good shape and have some appeal may be put out on a book cart a few weeks after the sale and people who couldn’t get to the sale or are visitors often find some cheap reading.

Give the books to hospitals, homeless shelters, prisons at Appleton, Stillwater, Shakopee or others in your vicinity (both fiction and non-fiction), VA hospitals, organizations such as Rotary, Lions, etc. that also sponsor used book sales. One system reports that since they have library book sales at all branches, they sort through the ones that are left (if any) and offer to the next branch book sale. Libraries can be notified of the used book sale. If their sales were after ours, they would come at the end of the sale and we would box the books and send them off to a new library for their book sale.

Other places to contact that pick up the books.

Children’s Chance used by Edina Friends. After the Campbell Public Library Friends Treasure/Book Sale, remainders are sent to a different charity each year. In the last three years they have used St. Vincent de Paul, Boy’s Ranch and the ARC. In Fargo-Moorhead a used book dealer comes at the end of the sale and hauls away all the leftovers in his van.

Specific places include Salvation Army, Goodwill, Books for Africa, http://www.booksforafrica.org/booksdonation.html or 521-602-9844, Books Behind Bars (check to see if they accept hardcover) http://writeaprisoner.com/books-behind-bars.htm.

In the metro area: Mary’s House, Hospitality Center for Chinese, 1407 Cleveland Avenue North, St. Paul, MN 55108 651/659-9740. Women's Prison Book Project, Cyndy Klinksiek cyndyk@aracontent.com 952/278-0798 work. Will accept unsold paperback books.

Check the BookCrossing website www.bookcrossing.com for a novel way to participate in a book sharing experience. Also check the Fugitive Fact File on donations from the HCL http://www.hclib.org/pub/search/fff/FullDisplay.cfm?ID=205&Term=donations

Donate to bookshelves in local hotels (they send staff to collect). Include a sticker in the front cover indicating the Friends group provided the book and other information like the Friends bookstore hours.

Old looking books – of little interest for content – especially hardcovers could be given to theatre departments.

Some realtors will buy/take old books for "props" in demo and model homes. Decorator also can use a large number of books in a display of new homes.

Put the books out on temporary shelving with a "Free Books" sign over them accompanied by a secured metal box where people could make donations for the books, if they wish.

Sorting decisions need to be made on books that have been seen over and over again while sorting for different sales and they are thrown out. Used bookstores will sometimes pay for truckloads of books, but usually not very much, and if it is any distance, the cost of transport gets high (both in gas and volunteer hours).

Make provisions for an ongoing booksale in the library. Some like the Friends of the Library in St. Cloud, Grand Rapids, Bemiji, etc. have an ongoing used bookstore set up in the library. Some libraries have a shelf(s) or a book truck with books for sale. They may or may not also have an annual or semi-annual book sale.

Have a used book sale at the county fair. One person reported that over 20,000 books were sorted into boxes and on pallets (donated by local lumber yards) outdoors, under a tent, at the County Fair, and sold for 5 days, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m.

For some of these suggestions to be implemented, a place to store and sort books needs to be established—even space to have an ongoing sale. If the space is rentable, perhaps the owner could show the amount as a tax-deductible donation to the library?

Here are a couple of suggestions to check out. There is an article titled "Let them steal books" in the April 1, 2005 issue of the Library Journal, p.68, by David Isaacson. One of his ideas is instead of sending the leftover books from the book sale to dumpster, put them on a table/shelf marked as freebies, or with a sign "take one, leave one," or "take one of these home with you to keep; consider borrowing one of our other books." This builds goodwill, encourages book exchange, and attracts more people to the library. A reader responds with her library’s success story with the same idea in LJ 5/15, p.10.

Libraries might be interested in bLogistics for the books they want to get rid of. Check out their site at http://www.blogistics.com in Colorado. Bill DeJohn talked with them about an ongoing service program with libraries. According to their FAQ, "bLogistics provides its library clients with turnkey access to: Amazon, eBay, Half, Alibris, ABE, Barnes & Noble and their international affiliates."

Some comments on the final resting place.

Unfortunately we just recycle them.... at least that way they are not just put into the dump but are reused as paper products. Books are picked up by our Sentence to Serve Manager and taken to the probation office for kids who have community service hours. They take off the covers and then the paper is recycled.

The remaining books, etc. are packed in boxes and put in our recycling dumpster. We believe that books that do not sell are ones that no one wants and/or of no use to anyone. We do not save them from year to year. The idea of recycling them is controversial, however. We have recycled them for many years now, but it is still an issue One person encourages Friends to recycle saying that many groups hang on to those books and pull them out again and again but it is a bad habit as book buyers do notice if they see the same tired editions.

If books are not taken as giveaways, we classify them as garbage and shelve them in the trash bin. Disposing of a book is always traumatizing, but over the years we have built up a resistance to the pain. Have dumpsters right at the sale site.