Wheaton Library book sale moved to August

Some big changes are coming to the annual Friends of the Wheaton Public Library book sale.

After many years of being held in September, this year's event will begin Wednesday, Aug. 26, and run through Saturday, Aug. 29.

"I know we have some fabulous books already," said Carolyn DeAre, book sale co-chairwoman. "The sale should be as great as ever. I hope people have it marked on their calendar."

DeAre said organizers hope holding the sale earlier in the year will be less disruptive for library programming, as summer programs will be over and fall programs will not have started yet.

"In order to stage the book sale we have to have the big meeting room for a period of a couple of weeks," she said.

Aside from the date change, the products available at this year's sale will be limited to books.

Audio and visual items, including DVDs, CDs, computer games and audiobooks, will now be sold at a separate sale, which is scheduled for Friday, Sept. 25, to Sunday, Sept. 27.

"We just don't have enough space," DeAre said. "We get so many donations for our book sale that we really needed to figure out a way to cut it back a bit so we could handle it in the room we have."

Each year, the book sale contains about 40,000 items. DeAre said it typically raises between $20,000 and $30,000.

Library Director Betsy Adamowski said that money is able to cover all of the library's programming expenses for the year.

"It's a huge service to the library and to the community," she said.

In addition to making changes to the book sale, the Friends of the Library group is now collecting book donations year-round in the lobby. Previously, donations were only taken about a month before the book sale.

Every day - sometimes several times a day - volunteers collect the donations and bring them to a sorting room, DeAre said.

"Now it's so much more organized and the volunteers are so much more engaged all year-round, instead of just that one month," Adamowski said.

Anyone who has large donations is asked to bring them between 9 a.m. to noon on the first Saturday of the month, except for July, when the collection will be held on the second Saturday.

To better manage donations, the Friends also set up a new Book Nook this spring on the first floor of the library, where patrons can browse and buy books at any time. DeAre said the Nook is bringing in about $500 a month.

"I see people browsing in there all the time," she said.

One aspect of the Friends fundraising that is not changing is the holiday book and art sale, which is scheduled for Nov. 12-15.

"As we sort our donations, if we get something that's really a beautiful book and that we know we can sell for more than two or three dollars, or if its something really old or collectible, we set those books aside," DeAre said.

Some of the other items sold at the holiday sale include framed and unframed art, autographed books and first edition books.