Founders Memorial Library book sale may yield hidden gems

By AMANDA WALDE

For those who substitute online selling of miscellaneous objects for a part-time job, the Founders Memorial Library may be a gold mine. The book sale, located on the main floor of the library next to the circulation desk, may contain some potential treasures.

Though some books are priced as low as 50 cents, it is possible their worth may expand as time progresses. Meredith Ayers, science librarian at the library, said she enjoys finding older novels for her father and mystery books for her mother.

“I usually check the books I find for my dad to see if it is a first edition,” Ayers said. “As time goes by, the value of first edition books tends to rise. It is however dependent upon the reputation of the author and the rarity of the novel. Finding something rare is usually by chance.”

Senior library specialist Jane Farmer is responsible for compiling the book sale. Farmer said the books are donated from numerous sources. If the donated books are not utilized for the library catalogue, they are added to the book sale.

“The general pricing for the book sale is $1 for hard backs and 50 cents for paper backs,” Farmer said. “Classics or newer published books can be as much as $5. I have heard that students do search for books to sell on eBay. We all know one man’s junk is another man’s treasure.”

The book sale now includes CDs, VHS tapes and book tapes. The library recently received a large donation of book tapes, and they are going very fast, Farmer said.

Reference librarian Wally Grant said the book sale has raised a significant amount of money for the library.

“It’s really an amazing thing we have going on here; the book sale has been very successful,” Grant said. “In the old days we used to have just two book sales a year, and that would create a bit of disruption for a few days. This is a much better system now; at the beginning I think the library made as much as $3,000 a year off of it. I believe it’s accumulating much more now seeing that it’s available every day.”