Friends of the library at the annual book sale.
COLCHESTER – Colchester’s annual spring book flea market will return next weekend in the Colchester High School cafeteria for the public to browse and enjoy.
The tradition is started by Friends of Burnham, a nonprofit organization that provides 90% of the operating funds for the Burnham Memorial Library. Books at the sale are donated by the community, and all proceeds go to support the collections and other programs at the Burnham.
The sale takes place on Fridays from 4pm to 8pm, Saturdays from 9am to 3pm and Sundays from 10am to 2pm. Every year, including this year, the sale offers thousands of titles at great prices – the estimate for this year is around 100 books per table at 44 tables.
“Nobody can stand to throw books away,” said Sue-Rae Glinka, president of the Friends. “And for really popular books, people buy them brand new and spend about $25 on them. They read it once, then donate it to us and we sell it for two dollars.”
The price range makes the sale not only particularly sustainable, but also particularly accessible.
Glinka, who has been president of the Friends for eight years, passed the role of book sale chairman this year to another friend of the library, Kristin Silverman, and a trustee, Carol Anderson.
“I’m really impressed with them,” Glinka said. “They’re very well organized. They’re very enthusiastic. I think change is good. They had some new ideas. And I’m thrilled that I was able to step back a little and they’re now implementing it.”
Anderson told the Sun that organising the sale was a lot of work but a lot of fun.
“This year we have a lot of volunteers who have never helped before,” Anderson said. “They are so enthusiastic and yesterday we dropped off books. It’s pouring with rain. We’re holding umbrellas and trying to wrap the books in plastic so they don’t get wet.”
So many people helped that they managed to bring everything into the building without the goods getting soaked.
“It was a lot of fun, even though it rained,” she said.
Volunteers and organizers spend four days prior to the three-day sale sourcing and organizing book drop-offs.
“Everything that was dropped off yesterday is now in the cafeteria and it’s crazy, we have a cafeteria full of books,” she said. “Tomorrow we have another opportunity to drop off books and we’ll drop them off there and then hopefully be done sorting by the end of the day on Thursday.”
The Friends of the Burnham Library were founded in 1988 and began their annual book sale at that time.
“And as far as I know, after they started, there was one every year,” Glinka said. “With kind of a one-year break because of COVID… And we’ve been back at it ever since.”
About a quarter of the money the Friends raise for Burnham each year is a direct result of the book sale initiative, with the other three quarters coming from the annual fundraising appeal – although this is far less work, according to Glinka.
However, she is also convinced that the success of the annual fundraising appeal is based on the goodwill generated by book sales and the joy that people get from this tradition.
“We see the same people every year,” Glinka said. “They come and fill a box or two with books, and they read all summer, all year, and many of those books go back the next year and someone else takes them home.”
“So it’s really a very appreciated community event,” she added. “It’s incredible how many books we get donated in just six or seven hours. And the cafeteria at the high school is going to be full of books. Every surface is going to be covered – we’re going to have to set up extra tables.”
According to Glinka, the volunteers also take great care to carefully sort the books so that when people come in and ask about a particular genre, they are directed to exactly the table that matches their literary interests.
“I think it’s more fun and people are more likely to find what they’re looking for,” Glinka said. “People shouldn’t miss it. It’s an annual tradition in Colchester and they should all come out this summer and find something to read.”
It’s not just the bargains that are an incentive, she said, but also the fact that the offers can entice people to try new things and discover new adventures and authors that people might not have otherwise known about.
Anderson agreed that the opportunity to get books for literally a fraction of the price at the book sale makes for a really enjoyable atmosphere each year.
“It’s a great way to bring more books into the community,” Anderson told the Sun.
