Arlington Library Book Sale Draws a Crowd

For close to 35 years, the Friends of the Arlington Public Library have organized a book sale, which the Arlington library website calls "Arlington's longest-running recycling program." Over the years, the library has transitioned from holding the sale once per year to holding it twice per year.

Held on one level of the Central Library's parking garage, the sale runs for four days. This fall's sale was held from Sept. 30-Oct. 3. The first night of the sale, Thursday, is for Friends of the Library members who have paid their dues. Beginning on Friday, the sale is open to the public. The hours are 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 12-6 p.m. Sunday. All items are half-price on Sunday.

That's the timeline the Arlington community is familiar with, but what about all of the prep work that takes place behind the scenes? The process is very specific, according to Joe Grosson, husband of book sale organizer Cindy Sweet. Throughout the year, he said, volunteers work to process the donations that the library receives, as well as certain materials the library does not plan to keep in its system. They categorize and price the materials using appropriate pricing scales for each type of item and its age.

Then, the Monday before the sale begins, movers bring books, carts and shelves to the parking garage that will be home to the sale. Volunteers organize the books on shelves before the sale officially opens, explained Grosson, who lives with his wife in Nashville, Tenn. The two come to Arlington to help with each sale, along with Sweet's parents, who assist in taking customer payments and making change.

"The revenue from this particular sale has been pretty good so far," Grosson said. "We brought in $29,000 just on Thursday night when we were open for Friends of the Library members." He noted that the success of the sale is based on the revenue received rather than the number of attendees.

With books organized into categories of all kinds, including fiction, foreign language, children's, psychology, history and more, the selection was vast and ideal for browsing. While some attendees regularly attend the Arlington Library's book sale, for others, this weekend was their first time at the sale.

"This is my first time at the sale," said Arlington resident Katie Weston, who had an armful of children's books. "I'm a teacher, so I'm checking out the kids' books."

For Arlington resident Abigail Konyndyk, no one genre of books drew her to the sale. "I'm just looking around and trying to find some deals," she shared.

For more information on the sale, visit http://library.arlingtonva.us. Keep an eye on the library website in the coming months for more details about the spring book sale.