Today is Saturday, the second and last day for the January Friends of the Library Book Sale. I've been working the Saturdays of the sale for about the last year.
It is supposed to be the quieter of the two days, and generally we do take in less money on the Saturdays. But on Fridays all the used book dealers come in and buy great boxes of books, spending several hundreds of dollars for books that they then attempt to resell for profit. But I am beginning to realize that for sheer numbers of customers, Saturday may be the better of the two days. Teachers and children shop on Saturdays. But the Saturday customers, just don't buy in large volume.

For awhile now I have worked out in the sale room, putting books away that customers decide not to buy, putting prices on books that haven't been marked for some reason, and helping customers find what they want. I carry a Dewey Decimal system reference around with me, and try to steer them in the right directions. That is an iffy proposition at best, because 1. the volunteers are amateurs at numbering the non fiction books, 2. we have the same books located in several areas,and 3. customers aren't very specific about their wants, nor are they good at following directions!
But we try. They look and I look, and sometimes we find just what they want. But often times we find things that they didn't know they wanted, but they buy them anyway. Now, that's fun! I have probably, unknowingly, started many folks out on some hobby they didn't even want to try.

Today, for example one man was interested in coins, but ended up buying a book on guns. Another person was looking for water color painting books, but we found only acrylic painting. It seemed to work. One customer comes monthly and asks for some very non-specific subjects; like "nature" or "animals." I usually try to find him a lovely book with large colorful pictures, and he goes away happily with his purchase.
Today it was a book about Africa. At the back of the sales room we have a long table
(really three or four folding tables put together) where we put new non-fiction donations. People, and that includes all of us volunteers, love to browse that table. Since we inaugurated this system, it has saved us many hours of shelving time. Now we only have to shelve the books that aren't purchased.

Another fun thing that I do is try to decorate my little bargain corner with its puzzles, magazines, and fifty cent fiction , with seasonal decorations. This month I had posters of snow scenes, and some snow houses on the shelves. I try to display stand up books on top the shelving units that match the seasonal decor. I put most anything there as long as the colors are eye catching. It is a great sales gimmick, the books sell almost as soon as you set them up. I replaced those books five or six times today. We also sell old donated magazines for a $1.00 a sack, and we pretty well clear out the section every month. It makes me happy to think about all the hours of reading that walk out the door every month.

And it makes me even happier to know that the Friends of the Library were able to donate about $40,000 dollars a year back to the library for the last few years. Since libraries have lost much of their state funding, it makes our volunteer efforts even more valuable to the city of Anderson. Anderson has a beautiful library, probably the most used building in town. I hope our efforts can help to keep it that way.