By Krystal Smalley
ksmalley@wbcowqel.com
In some cases, having too many books is a good thing. Just ask the Friends of the Bucyrus Public Library, who are holding their annual holiday book sale today and tomorrow.
“We raise money for the summer program,” explained Friends of the Library member Roberta Siniff, who was helping to shelve books and direct patrons Thursday afternoon for the first day of the three-day sale. “Then any other incidentals the library might need.”
In the past the Friends of the Library have been able to buy computers, televisions, and items for the children’s library with the proceeds from the book sales, which are typically held three times a year.
This holiday season, however, saw a bit of a change for the Friends of the Library. Not only did they send out an advance announcement that they would not be able to accept any more donated books for the time being, but the surplus allowed them to move half their stock into one of the larger back rooms in the basement of the local library.
“We had too many (books),” Siniff laughed. “That’s a good thing. That’s why we’re doing the bag.”
As Siniff explained, the book sale usually featured set prices on the various books. With the excess, however, the Friends of the Library decided to accept donations on the bags of books visitors took home.
The library board allowed the Friends of the Library to move their stock from the conference room at the bottom of the stairs to a larger room down the hallway, which now features shelves of books sometimes stacked two deep. Siniff said this is a huge benefit for her group as they no longer had to move around and store carts before and after the sale.
“Since we had so many books we were trying to figure out what to do to get off the carts,” Siniff said. “They (the library board) did put the shelves up and we were just fortunate they were ready to go.”
The bags of books sale may not last into next year, Siniff said, depending on how many books go out the door during this week. If enough go out the Friends of the Library may return to their former ways with the set prices – and they’ll start accepting book donations again.
“This is the kind of problem we would like, for the books to go,” Siniff said. “So far we’ve had quite a few go out.”
As for seeing bags of books go out the door, Siniff said that always makes them happy.
“That means it’s just that much more money that we can give back to the library,” she added.
The holiday book sale continues from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Saturday.