Books for Sale!

It's not often that you can buy terrific books at great prices … unless you shop the Sherwood Friends book sale!

Many of our neighbors bring us their books as they relocate or downsize. While it's impossible to predict what titles you will find at the book sale when you visit, we thought that it might be helpful to describe the book sale process. 

The first step—which for many is the hardest—is deciding which books to remove from your home. The library accepts relatively new books in good condition. Once these books have been bagged or boxed, there is another decision point. For items that are relatively new and will be useful to the library, you can donate them to us. Six days a week (but never on Sunday) you can ring the staff door at the library and someone will help you bring the books in to the area where the Friends of Sherwood Library will find them. For smaller quantities, donations can also be brought through the front door and placed in a bin by the returns desk. (This method is the only one available on Sunday.) Staff will offer you a receipt for tax purposes- for that reason, you will want to know how many paperbacks and hardbacks are in your donation. Come tax time, you will decide the value of your donation.

Shortly after donated items arrive at the library, they go to the Friends’ second floor sorting room. Our hard-working, dedicated, and tireless crew of volunteers sort items we can offer for sale from items that won't sell. Some items are kept for the Friends’ online book sale; these books have been researched and found to be potentially more valuable.  Generally, though, prices are intentionally kept low. There are several reasons for this.  Our Friends group believes that books should be affordable for everyone and we invite you to judge for yourselves. Low prices also ensure a flow of books to happy buyers, who often donate them back to us later.

The Friends sell a selection of books on an ongoing basis on both the library’s first and second floors. There are also certain times when the Friends open their sorting room to customers. These times are Thursdays from 10 a.m. to noon and the first Saturday of the month from 10 a.m. to noon (unless that Saturday falls on a holiday).

Sometimes the inventory isn't sold. We support local shelters and Head Start centers with books for children. Repeat customers include families who send books to schools in Africa and the Philippines. Books useful for tutoring go to other locations for use by students of all ages.

And how is the money used? Many of you know that our library budget has taken some big cuts in the last few years. The money raised by the Friends has purchased magazine subscriptions, programming for audiences of all ages, recognition events for our library volunteers, and most recently, new furniture in the public area and digital display boards in the lobby.

So, when you find some extra books on your shelves, and maybe some time on your hands, please consider the Sherwood Library book sale to put them both to good use!