Behind the Scenes: What Happens to Your Donated Books?
The Friends of Duncan Library Spring Book Sale has been months in the making thanks to generous book donations from the Del Ray community. There is no book sale without this all important first step—book donations!
Duncan Friend volunteers—a dozen plus—regularly sort through those donations, working individually or in pairs in a small room across from the bathrooms referred to as “the closet.” Books are separated into broad categories such as fiction, kids' picture books, self-help and others. Books that are in bad condition, outdated in certain fields or on our list of things we don't take such as encyclopedias go into the gaylord (a huge bin located near the water fountain.) Sorters also scout for recently published books to give to Duncan Library staff to review and keep if it is something they can put into circulation.
When sorters run out of room in a category box, the books are moved into a storage box, labeled and stored in the library stacks. Working regular shifts, sorters have packed and put away more than 500 boxessince the Fall book sale. If you notice boxes stored on the shelves in Duncan Library, you are seeing the results of our volunteers' work!
Book donation cart sits at the entrance of Duncan Library.
Volunteer Nancy Haney sorts donated books in the sorting closet.
Sorters are always on the look-out for books that might fetch higher returns on the resale market, potentially increasing funds the Friends of Duncan Library raises to supplement the Duncan Library budget. The money raised for the branch enables staff to buy more new books, fund programs for adults and children and make other improvements. Books with potential higher value are put into bags for our reseller Don to review and sell for us. One such find was made by sorter Emily Wang Garrahan nine days before the Spring book sale—a signed book by Jane Goodall possibly worth up to $150 on the resale market!
As a thank you, sorters get a reward for their work: a donated book of their choice during each shift they work. An additional fun aspect of sorting is discovering unique items tucked inside the pages of the donated books: bookmarks from shops around the world, old photos, sales receipts, old pay stubs, stray foreign currency and other mementos.
The more interesting of these items are taped to a small wall in the closet to share with other sorters. Some days feel a bit like you're on the road as you pull bookmarks or hotel stationery from other states or countries people have left behind! A recent discovery included a photo of a young David Durenberger who served as U.S. senator from Minnesota.
Wall in the sorting closet displaying ephemera discovered in the pages of donated books.
A recent sorter find—a signed copy of Reason for Hope by Jane Goodall
In between book sales, donated books are also put out on the For Sale shelves (on the wall by the printer) where Duncan Library patrons can shop year-round. Free paperback books are pulled out and put on the spinner racks. Each book in the Spring and Fall book sales, on the sales shelves or on the spinner racks has passed through a Duncan Friends sorter's hand.
Then, after the Spring sale, the cycle of donations and sorting begins anew!