Books ‘pour in’ for Friends of the Library sale

Carol Powers, president of Friends of the Libraries, and Stephen McDermott, an employee of the Faulkner County Library in Conway, stand in the Friends of the Libraries room inside the library with boxes full of books for the annual fall sale. It will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. Oct. 7 for Friends members and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8 for the public. Memberships will be sold at the door on Oct. 7, too. Powers said the proceeds will be used for projects at the Faulkner County Library and all of its branches.
Carol Powers, president of Friends of the Libraries, and Stephen McDermott, an employee of the Faulkner County Library in Conway, stand in the Friends of the Libraries room inside the library with boxes full of books for the annual fall sale. It will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. Oct. 7 for Friends members and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8 for the public. Memberships will be sold at the door on Oct. 7, too. Powers said the proceeds will be used for projects at the Faulkner County Library and all of its branches.

CONWAY — Books are arriving every day for the Friends of the Libraries’ fall book sale at the Faulkner County Library in Conway, Director John McGraw said.

“The storage building is full with weeks to go before the sale,” McGraw said.

The two-day sale will take place from 6-8:30 p.m. Oct. 7 at the library, 1900 Tyler St., for Friends of the Libraries members only — but memberships are available at the door — and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Oct. 8 for the public.

“It is their major fundraiser for the year, and it relies on donations, which pour in like a fire hose 24 hours a day, seven days a week,” McGraw said.

A small Friends of the Libraries room inside the library, which sells books year-round, is full. The room is closed now “because we’re basically filling it to the ceiling,” McGraw said. A storage building behind the library has a mound of boxes full of books waiting to be unpacked.

There will be fiction, nonfiction, how-to, children’s, teen and adult books for sale, as well as DVDs and VHS tapes.

“There is a lot of stuff here gently used — even new — and really old,” McGraw said. “I’ll bet you even find stuff on cassette tapes. Last time, we had a whole room full of these old 78 records that came from some estate; this guy just brought us thousands of acetate … Frank Sinatra and Glenn Miller and everything in between. I grabbed some Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and Hank Snow,” McGraw said. “We struggled to sell them, and one person bought them all.”

Hardbacks and children’s books will be 50 cents a pound; paperbacks will be $3 for a plastic grocery bag full, which will be furnished by the library. All items may be purchased individually, too. DVDs, CDs and VHS tapes will be 50 cents each.

“I’m not sure why there’s this crescendo of books,” but the buyers will benefit, McGraw said. “We are able to get books to the community to people who need to have more books in their lives but may not be able to afford even 50 percent off at Hastings.”

McGraw said the proceeds from the sale are put to good use by Friends of the Libraries.

“They have funded lots of projects in the past,” he said. Those projects include everything from helping put together ComiCon-way, a comic, anime, gaming and science-fiction convention sponsored by the Faulkner County Library, to buying furniture for the children’s room in the Conway library.

“They’re great about all these little bits and pieces of the whole library that get overlooked,” he said.

Carol Powers, president of the Friends of the Libraries, said the two sales a year — spring and fall — are the group’s only fundraisers to fund projects for the Faulkner County Library in Conway, as well as branches in Vilonia, Greenbrier, Mayflower, Mount Vernon and Twin Groves.

“We support a concert series. At Christmastime, we work with CAPCA (the Community Action Program for Central Arkansas) to provide donations of books for children; we put it in with their food donations. We also work with the Master Gardeners; we provide the money for seeds and any labor or materials, … for example, irrigating the flower beds at the Greenbrier library. We have purchased a storage building for the Mayflower library.”

The group will also purchase books, “if there’s a really expensive set of books, or reference books,” she said.

The overwhelming task of sorting and setting up for the book sale will begin Oct. 5, Powers said.

“We totally depend on volunteers,” she said. “To get all the books moved — which is a huge process — from the storage building into the rooms where we sort, we have been fortunate enough to engage the Hendrix Volunteer Action Committee and Hendrix College athletes.

“They constantly come back and forth with dollies to the library and put the books on tables, under tables, and roughly sort them so it’s easier for gpeople to come shop,” she said.

“This is a good time to encourage children to have their own libraries or start your grandchild a little book collection; we encourage that, too,” Powers said.

People who own bookstores or resell books often come to the Friday-night event, she said, which is an advantage.

Friends of the Libraries memberships can be purchased at any of the branches prior to the sale, or at the door. The cost is $5 for an individual membership, $10 for a family, $20 for sponsorship or $100 for a business or lifetime membership.

“Memberships will be sold in multitudes that night,” McGraw said.

He hopes the books will, too.

“People don’t realize how vast this really is,” he said. “If we have a flat surface, we’re going to put books for sale on it because we’re drowning in them.”

For more information about the sale or to volunteer, email Powers at cpowers@tcworks.net, or call the Faulkner County Library at (501) 327-7482.

Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.

Upcoming Events