Donations are being sought for Founders Memorial Library’s fifth annual book sale, sponsored by the Friends of NIU Libraries.

“Donations of books are urgently needed,” said Sandra Naiman, English and American literature specialist at the library. “Literary and scholarly classics, popular novels, children’s books, cookbooks, paperback books, reference books, collected works and sets and religious and devotional works” are among the items needed for the sale, she said.

Textbooks over five years old, study and curriculum guides, magazines (except for special collectable editions), government documents and report literature cannot be sold, Naiman said. “People don’t buy them,” she said.

“Last year was a tremendous success,” Naiman said. Almost $2,500 was raised, she added.

Naiman, editor of Founder’s Type, the Friends’ newsletter, said the library has received several gifts from the Friends of NIU Libraries. The gifts include a rare first edition of Specimen Days and Collect, by Walt Whitman, complete with an “elegantly” autographed picture of the author, she said.

In addition, a set of very expensive books illustrating the Arnold Stein Collection of Chinese Art at the British Museum was given to the library, Naiman said.

She said profits from the sale probably will go toward buying new books. However, the officers of the Friends of NIU Libraries ultimately will decide where to spend the money, Naiman said.

Donations for the book sale can be dropped off at the loading dock behind the library with the note “Friends Book Sale” through April 24. The sale is scheduled for April 28 and 29 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in the library’s main lobby.