The 2024 sale will take place from Wednesday, September 25th until Saturday, September 28th in the Kelly Cafe, located on the ground floor of the library. From Wednesday to Friday the sale will be open from 10 am until 8 pm and on Saturday from 10 am until 1 pm.
Book lovers began lining up at 6 a.m. to be among the first to enter the Kelly Library’s 20th annual book sale. The book sale is worth the wait as over the years it has earned a reputation for assembling great treasures that are waiting to be discovered. The secret to the book sale’s success is the team of devoted individuals who work tirelessly to put it together each year.
In anticipation of the book sale’s opening, the lineup stretched down St. Joseph Street.
Inside, the Kelly Café was filled with tables stacked with books organized by genre and ranging from rare books to $1 bargains. Volunteers were ready to welcome their first customers, offering bag check and boxes to those in line who needed them.
“The biggest addition to the book sale is its volunteers. The more volunteers we have in advance of and at the sale, the better the sale will be. It’s great to have the students involved as well,” says Peter Rogers.
Peter was among the small group of volunteers, the Friends of the Kelly Library, who started the book sale 20 years ago. It began when Kelly’s Chief Librarian at the time, Jonathan Bengtson, had some books he thought would do well at a sale. More than $22,000 was raised in the first year.
Over the years, the book sale has raised over $500,000 and the funds have gone towards enhancing the library’s collections and spaces, including the new multipurpose room on the library’s ground floor.
The book sale is a volunteer-run effort. Friends of the Kelly Library executive committee and book sorters work year-round to collect and sort the donated books. This year, 50 student and 40 community volunteers donated their time in the lead up to and during the sale.
The book sale continues to evolve thanks to the dedication and expertise of its volunteers. One of the biggest improvements is the amount of sorting that occurs. “We always divided the books by subjects. Now we’ve become more fine-tuned with the divisions. Even the fiction section is divided alphabetically and we’ve increased the number of subjects,” says Peter.
In 2013, Sylvia and Ross Petras joined the effort and with them brought their ability to identify rare books. These special editions are set aside for the annual sale. The book sale now boasts a separate room specifically for rare books and special editions.
Kristen Kay decided to volunteer for this year’s sale when she dropped off books from her father’s collection and saw they were looking for volunteers. She was surprised by the amount of effort required for a successful sale.
“There’s a lot of logistics that I hadn’t considered, like limited space and how the books are acquired. The sheer volume is overwhelming, and it requires a lot of cooperation. The people have been very positive and committed,” she says.
The books are all donated, mostly by alumni, faculty and staff, with many coming from estate collections. Volunteers pick up donations and donations can also be dropped off at the front desk of the Kelly Library.
Katie McBain, a third-year student majoring in Classics and Celtic Studies and minoring in Medieval Studies, comes to the book sale every year and volunteered for the first time this year.
“People are so generous with what they bring in and their time. This is a tremendous amount of work, and everyone is a volunteer. They come in and do this for all of us. The people who donate are also so generous. I can’t imagine ever parting with some of the books we get. It’s a really lovely community,” she says.
She’s also looking forward to expanding her personal library. “Some of the books I find here are too expensive to buy new. It’s a chance for me to have something really nice, and that’s always exciting. I always come away with way too many books, but I think that’s the best part.”