CONWAY — Book-lovers, get ready.
The semiannual Friends of the Faulkner County Libraries book sale is back.
Held each spring and fall at the library, 1900 Tyler St. in Conway, the sale is the only fundraiser for all the branches.
The sale is scheduled from 6-8:30 p.m. April 7 for members of Friends of the Libraries, and from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. April 8 for the public.
Carol Powers, president of Friends of the Faulkner County Libraries, said memberships will be available, starting at $5, at the door.
“All our money goes directly to our branch libraries and here,” she said. The branch libraries are in Greenbrier, Mayflower, Mount Vernon, Twin Groves and Vilonia.
“I visited all of them, and they all have needs,” Powers said.
John McGraw, director of the Faulkner County Library, said books poured in last year for the sale.
However, it’s more of a trickle this year, Powers said.
“We’re really needing donations — our storage facility is just not full, not like we’d like it to be,” Powers said.
McGraw said that while it’s true “we’re not swimming in books like last year, when we literally ran out of space a month before the book sale,” plenty of books are available.
“I think last year was an outlier,” he said. “Nobody here can remember the storage room being full of books before.”
The sale can be a treasure hunt for bibliophiles.
Gently used and new books — how-to, fiction, nonfiction, children’s, teens’ and adults’ — will be for sale, as well as DVDs. The cost of paperbacks, hardcovers and children’s books will be 50 cents per pound; CDs and DVDs will be 50 cents each. VHS tapes and good old vinyl albums will be free.
McGraw said the sale will include “a little bit of everything, as usual. We’ve gotten a lot of really great gently read material. I don’t know if it’s Hastings [Entertainment] closing or what’s going on, but I think the quality of the books — the people who come to our sales all the time might be a little bit surprised.”
Laurel Wright, a member of the Friends organization, handles the sale donations as they come into the library. She was unpacking boxes one afternoon in the Friends of the Libraries Room and found everything from Anne Rice paperbacks and cookbooks to a Baker’s Bible Atlas.
The Friends of the Libraries room sells books year-round, but it will close when the volunteers start serious sorting for the sale.
“We have a list of volunteers we contact. We would gladly take more,” Wright said.
Proceeds from the sale also help the Friends of the Libraries
support the Summer Concert Series, Backyard Gourmet and ComiCon-way, billed as Arkansas’ premier comic, anime and sci-fi convention.
“That is a huge success,” Powers said of the three-day convention.
The library group also helps A Bookcase for Every Child by providing children’s books, when needed.
Also, the Friends partner with the Faulkner County Master Gardeners to beautify the grounds around the libraries.
“They do wonderful things for our branches,” McGraw said of the Friends. For example, he said the Friends group helped replace items stolen last year before Christmas from the Twin Groves library.
Powers said the library branches are the heart and soul of each community and give patrons an opportunity to search online databases and attend educational and cultural programs, as well as check out books and music. Libraries give people a chance to explore, experience ideas, “get lost in wonderful stories and provide a sense of place for gathering,” she said.
For more information, call the library at (501) 327-7482, or contact Powers at (501) 329-3287 or cpowers@tcworks.net.
Senior writer Tammy Keith can be reached at (501) 327-0370 or tkeith@arkansasonline.com.