Friends of the Library Book Sale Returns This Weekend

The Friends of Tompkins County Public Library will hold their annual Spring Book Sale over three long weekends in May, beginning Saturday, May 6th, at 509 Esty St, Ithaca. Open 10am to 8pm. 

To serve as many book lovers as possible, on the first Saturday, May 6, each shopper may purchase a maximum of 50 items at a time. After checking out, customers may rejoin the line to come in and shop again. There are no limits to the number of items shoppers can buy on subsequent sale days.

On Wednesday, May 17, seniors (age 60+) and anyone with a disability may shop from 10am to 4pm, and students (age 16+ with school ID) can shop 4-8pm. On Monday, May 22, all items on the main floor are just 10 cents each. On Tuesday, May 23, BYO reusable shopping bag and fill it up for $1. 

Each Book Sale offers up to 250,000 gently used books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles, games, and other items, organized into 70+ subject categories for easy shopping. The large Children’s Section, organized by subject as well, includes over 35,000 items. The Collector’s Corner features rare books, first editions, collectible vinyl records, art, and vintage toys and games.  

Highlights of this Sale

A special display, titled “Sailing the Shining Seas,” will feature books, movies, and other items from History, Military History, Fiction (e.g., the “Master and Commander” series by Patrick O’Brian), Hobbies (model ship building), Children (pirates, whales, mermaids), Travel, True Adventure, Photography, Art, Sports (yachting), Biography, and even Cookbooks (fish recipes!). 

Thanks to generous donations from the community, there will be more than 8,500 DVDs available at the spring sale, as well as a large Audio Books section with fiction and non-fiction titles. In Vintage Fiction, there is a wide selection of books by Grace Livingston Hill, the popular early-20th century writer (and Elmira College alumna) who originated the genre of Christian romance novels. Patrons will find over 200 high school and college yearbooks from western NY schools (1940-1990s) in the Local Interest section, an extra-large number of fiction and non-fiction titles in Large Print, and a special collection of Braille books in the Children’s section. 

Proceeds of the Book Sales held each spring and fall fund the Friends of the Library’s annual grants that support Tompkins County Public Library and other libraries in the Finger Lakes region, as well as local non-profit organizations for literacy and reading projects and scholarships for library science students.

History of the Book Sale

The Friends of the Library Book Sale is one of the largest and longest running nonprofit sales in the nation. The Friends organization was founded in 1946 and held its first book sale the next year, raising $461 (roughly equivalent to $6,024 in today’s dollars). 

For many years the Friends Book Sale was held at the library itself. After outgrowing that space, the sale moved from one empty building in downtown Ithaca to another, while books, tables, and shelves were stored in volunteers’ basements and garages. (At one point, shelving consisted of wood planks supported by volumes of Reader’s Digest Condensed Books!)  From 1974 to 1991, the Friends leased space in the Ithaca Calendar Clock Building, on the corner of Dey and Adams streets. In those years the sale took place in October, with a smaller event to sell magazines in May. 

In the 1980s the Friends started looking for a building to permanently house the Book Sale, but it was autumn 1991 before they found a facility that did not require extensive renovations. The move was less than a mile away, an 11,000-square foot warehouse at 509 Esty St., with two bathrooms, an office, heat and hot water, and a parking lot across the street. Volunteers contributed hundreds of hours of labor to move books and shelving, and built new shelves, a room to house the Collector’s Corner, and a loft for meetings and storage. In May 1992 the Friends held a sale of paperback books in the new building and the full book sale that October. 

Over the last 30 years, donations of books and other items have increased so that the Friends now hold two sales annually, ten days each over three long weekends in May and October. Today, books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles, games, and other items fill over two linear miles of shelving, and an average of 10,000 book lovers shop at each sale. In 75 years, the Friends have given over $7 million to the Tompkins County Public Library.

The Book Sale at a Glance

Saturday-Monday: May 6-8 & 13-15

Saturday-Tuesday, May 20-23

10am-8pm each day

509 Esty St, Ithaca (free parking across the street)

Prices drop each weekend. 

Info at booksale.org or call 607-272-2223