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Restock Your Bookshelves at our Annual Book Sales

Behind the scenes of our Annual Book sales there are so many volunteers and contributors involved, we are continually amazed by and grateful for the way the Avon community can come together.

First of all, there are hundreds of you who take the time throughout the year to contribute very gently used, clean hardcover and paperback books, CDs, DVDs, and audio books.

Once a week our team of ‘sorters’ carts the books from the drop-off closet to the basement where we have set up an assembly line at which we sort the books by genre and then by author to make the final set-up as buyer-friendly as possible.

From time to time during the sorting we come across a volume that looks like a rarity.  These we investigate and occasionally find we can sell directly to a book dealer.  These little gems add some excitement to the sorting process – like a treasure hunt.

As the opening day of the sale approaches, we have yet another group of volunteers to help with the heavy lifting.  (There a number of husbands coopted to help in this endeavor.)  They cart books up to the Community Room and lay them out in accessible aisles

Then the fun begins.  Our Friday night opening is certainly the best time to take advantage of the full range of materials available.  If you are a member of The Friends, you get in free.  Otherwise, for this special preview, you are asked to pay a $5 entrance fee.

Friends volunteers are available throughout the Display Room to quickly re-stock the tables and to provide any guidance our browsers may require.  The check-out system hums along, as books are tallied at one desk and passed along to the payment desk.  By the way, we accept cash (of course), checks and credit cards. We enlist the help of high school students to help restock and if required, to carry your books to your car.

Sometimes we hear fantastic stories of how the books will be used.  Especially on the Children’s Sale day, we have many, many teachers who look for books that their school budget does not accommodate.  One of our favorite stories involved a couple who arrived pulling a large wagon.  They were stocking their library in a camp in Maine for teenagers, at which computers and phones were prohibited.  Instead, the campers were encouraged to read in their free time.  As you might imagine there was a certain amount of rebellion to this rule, but within a week, the majority of the kids were hooked on books.  Wow.  Anything we can do to help children form a love of reading warms the heart.

Finally, what goes up must come down and we enlist the help of the ‘usual suspects’ as well as the Boy Scouts to repack the unsold items for ongoing use at other sale venues.

The Book Sales proceeds are used to underwrite many of the programs that the community can attend free of charge.

The final group we thank are all of you readers who come and take advantage of the amazing bargain prices for best-selling books from best-selling authors.  Your patronage makes all of the work worthwhile and supports our mission to enrich the library experience for the entire Avon community.  So please join us at one or several of our sale dates.

Book and Media Donation Guidelines:

The Friends are able to accept your donations of very gently used, clean hardcover and paperback books, CDs, DVDs, and audio books for the annual sale and Booktique.

Donations should be brought to the donation closet at the end of the Gallery hallway outside of the Community Room.
Books must be in bags or boxes.  Please do not leave books outside the library or in the Gallery hallway.

Items we DO NOT accept:

• Reader’s Digest Condensed Books
• Textbooks
• Encyclopedias
• Hardcover fiction without a dust cover
• Business books written prior to 2018
• Computer books written prior to 2018
• Travel guides written prior to 2018
• Magazines (including National Geographic)
• Books that are highlighted or underlined
• Books with pages missing, have a musty smell, or have broken spines
• Videos (VHS)
• Cassette tapes (music or books on cassette)
• Puzzles or games
• Badly worn books

For further information, e-mail the Friends, or call the Avon Library at 860-673-9712.

Donation Receipts available here!

Book Sale Finder

Friends of Connecticut Libraries Events Calendar