October 2017
 Volunteer Opportunities
Interested in volunteering with the Friends of the
Library Book Sale but not sure what the best fit is
for your time and interests? Here are the
possibilities:
 Sorting & Cleaning: A constantly on-
going task. Volunteers get a first look at
incoming books and decide which are
appropriate for sale. Can be relaxing or
tedious, depending on point of view.
 Appraisal: Also constantly on-going.
Volunteers use the web to research comparable
book values to our stock to determine sale
price.
 Database Entry: Also constantly on-going.
Volunteers write book condition descriptions
and enter copy, sales price, and other
identifying information into our online store
database.
 Packaging & Shipping: An as-needed task
(usually several times per week). Volunteers
check our online store email account for
orders, then process the orders, print mailing
labels, find book locations in our database, and
package and label books for shipping.
friendlyreader29@yahoo.com
Table of Contents
Volunteer Opportunities ..... 1
Future Book Sale Dates ...... 2
Book Sorter Guidelines ....... 2
Box Party Report ................ 3
FOTL Lingo ........................ 3
Genre-Location Table ......... 4
Sales Revenue Updates ....... 5
Contact Information ............ 6
 Book Sale Set-Up & Take-Down: Four times
yearly. More physical labor required than all
other tasks. Volunteers work the Wednesday
and Thursday before the Sale, setting up tables,
putting up signs, and transferring heavy box
trays to the Sale rooms. The Monday after the
Sale reverses the process.
 Cashiering & Bagging: Nine times yearly.
The most social task. Volunteers greet
customers, handle transactions, bag or box up
sold books, and indicate book prices when
asked. Can be hectic during peak Sale hours.
Three–four hour shifts.
 Flerging/Customer Service: Nine times
yearly. Also a social task. Some crouching
may be necessary. Volunteers restock and
arrange sales trays, answer customer questions,
and deliver large purchases to customer
vehicles. Three–four hour shifts.
 The initial, most critical Book Sale task is sorting through our massive
Final 2017 donations to determine whether the books are in sellable condition
Book Sales! and which venue is most appropriate for their sale. The following list
offers some standards, guidelines, and responses to frequently asked
questions.

October 27–29 1. Books with loose pages, broken spines, chunks missing from the
(Full Sale) cover, and separated edges cannot be sold by us or donated to
Friday & Saturday another organization. Paperback books in this condition should be
recycled. Hardcover books should be thrown in the garbage.
10am–4pm
2. Throw away music cassette and VHS tapes. They have no value.
Sunday 1–4pm
3. Keep only those magazines that are monthly periodicals (toss
weeklies like People and Time) and have a publication date within
December 14–15 the past two years. For example, for all 2017 sales, we keep
(Holiday Mini-Sale) magazines dated from January 2015 onward. Recycle the rest. We
Thursday & Friday have only four categories for sorting magazines: general, women’s,
decorating, and cooking.
10am–4pm
4. Set aside those books that appear new, in excellent condition, rare,
vintage, part of a set, or large reference books, art books, and
photographic retrospectives, for further appraisal on a labelled cart.
Remember to sign up If they have significant value, they may be added to our online
sales collection. The excellent-condition books that do not have a
to volunteer! value $10 or above will be placed in our IncrediBook section.
Books that are neither new nor of significant value will be added to
the physical Book Sale collection, categorized by genre.

5. All books retained for the Book Sale should be wiped

down with Clorox disinfecting wipes and paper
towels, which can be found in the sign-in area. Our
customers are more likely to purchase unsoiled books!
Book with Broken Spine—Throw away
6. After determining a book’s condition and genre, store
larger books by length (with the cover facing up), in Vintage Book— Book Set—
the genre-designated box tray. Mass-market Appraisal Needed Appraisal Needed
paperbacks may be stored with their spines facing up.
7. If you run out of room in a genre-designated box tray
while sorting, new trays can be found in the back right
shelving area. Genre cards to label the tray can be
found on the second shelf on the right of the back
hallway.

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Fortunately, a packaging company new boxes. And a few people just

recently donated three bales of focused on the transfer process:
box trays to the Friends, totaling old boxes from storage to meeting
nearly 715 new boxes! But these room to outside garbage area; new

T hose volunteers who help to

sort books into their genre-
specific box trays or who transfer
the books in their trays during the
set-up and take-down processes of
the Book Sale will be aware that
most of our cardboard trays were
weakened from the heavy book
weights and beat up from the
hauling, shoving, bumping, and
dropping that frequently occurs
when they are being moved. A
majority of them have been held
together by heavy-duty packing
tape!
boxes actually arrived as flat
boards that needed to be
constructed into their usable
forms.
So twelve volunteers met up on
August 28 for the “Box Party.”
Some people sorted the old boxes
into two groups: those designated
for recycling, and those decent
enough to be donated to two other
charitable organizations that have
a use for them. Other volunteers
used razors to cut down the boxes
for recycling. Another set of
people started constructing the
boxes from loading bay to
meeting room to storage.
Such a seemingly simple task
really required a lot of man-power
and management in order to
proceed efficiently! Thank you to
all the volunteers who were able
to participate. These new boxes
will allow the Book Sale to appear
more professional to our patrons
and lessen any volunteer concerns
about trays collapsing in their
arms!

Abe --------------- The name of our primary online vendor for book FOTL
sales; the database which stores our inventory information.
LINGO!
Alibris ------------ Our secondary online vendor for books and other
media.
Bag Sale --------- An “all-you-can-fit-in-one-bag” deal for Saturdays (a
paper bag at $5) and Sundays (a plastic bag at $3) during the Book Sale.
De-stickifying --- The process of removing particularly troublesome sales stickers from books that have been
donated to us. Our policy is to never let a book go out on the sales floor with a prior seller’s sticker on the
cover. We have a special box designated for books whose stickers can’t be pulled off without some extra
help.
Flerging --------- A portmanteau of “flip” and “merge.” Books in trays on the sales tables should be flipped
so that the spine is facing upwards. As the sales day progresses, volunteer “flergers” should merge the sales
box trays’ open spaces with overflow/back stock of books, usually located underneath the sales tables.
IncrediBooks --- Our marketing term for our highest quality sales items. These books and other media look
new or are in excellent condition, but do not have an appraisal value over $10, so cannot be sold in our online
store. They’re specially priced for the Book Sale, at least $1 more than what would be the typical sales price.
They may or may not be
included in the Bag Sales.
 Genre-Location Reference Table
For a beginner volunteer, the sheer number of
categories we use to sort the books can sometimes
feel overwhelming. And we frequently receive
donations that do not fit neatly into a single category.
We are (mostly) not librarians! We do not have the
expertise (or the time) to devise a highly technical
system for differentiating the books.
Many of our volunteers are only able to help out a
couple hours per week or just seasonally at the Book
Sale. It can be difficult to remember where the books
belong, either during the donation and storage phase
or in the L.E. Phillips meeting rooms during the
actual Book Sale.
One of our former interns, now a volunteer, has
created a handy table as a reference tool.
 Sorting by yourself and don’t recall where the
Westerns are located?
 Don’t remember if we have a specific Animal
section or if those books belong in Natural
Science?
 Working the Sale and can’t find Grace/Linda to
double-check what sub-section theatrical plays
are categorized in?
Carry this page in your purse or pocket to use as
cheat-sheet!

Storage Book Sale

Media/Genre
Location Location

Front hallway on Children/Young Adult Red Cedar Room

the right Large Print, Novels, Romance Chippewa Room

Front hallway on Science Fiction/Fantasy, Reference, Self-Help/Medical,

Eau Claire Room
the left Religion, History/Military/Politics, Literature, Biography

Inspirational Romance, Harlequin Romance, Graphic Novels,

Chippewa Room
Westerns

Music CDs, Videogames Red Cedar Room

Back hallway on
the right Music, Transportation, Philosophy/Psychology/Sociology,
Travel, Cookbooks, Magazines, Holiday, Foreign Language,
Games, Fix-It/Mechanics, Gardening, Sports, Education, Eau Claire Room
Computers, Humor, Arts/Crafts/Decorating, Business,
Art/Architecture/Theater, Animals
Back hallway on
Audiobooks, DVDs Red Cedar Room
the left

Back storage IncrediBooks Eau Claire Room

area on the shelf Overflow of all genres All Rooms
Back storage
area on Oversize Reference, Science & Math, Natural Science Eau Claire Room
designated carts

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IPad Credit Card Reader

May Sale Revenue
$5,510—slightly higher than the
2016 spring Sale.
Highest Sunday revenue of any
spring Sale ($426).

July Sale Revenue

Online Store Business Card $6,386—slightly less than the
2016 summer Sale, though
fewer books were available!
Highest Friday credit/debit card
revenue of any sale ($1,173).

September Mini-Sale
Revenue
2017 Online Sales Revenue 5-genre focus: art, crafts, DVDs,
large print, mysteries
Alibris . 30 Items Sold ....... $738 revenue
$867—our highest total of any mini-
Abe ...... 265 Items Sold ... $4838 revenue
sale, and almost $500 more than the
Ebay .... 35 Items Sold ..... $1104 revenue first mini-sale, held one year ago.
Total .... 330 Items Sold ... $6680 revenue
 Page 6

Book Sale Information

 friendlyreader29@yahoo.com
 https://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/book-
sales/
 eauclairefriendlyreader.alibrisstore.com

Friends of the Library Information

 friendsofthelibrary@eauclaire.lib.wi.us
 https://www.ecpubliclibrary.info/
friends-of-the-library/
 715-831-5301
 L.E. Phillips Memorial Public Library
400 Eau Claire Street
Eau Claire, WI 54701

Written and Designed by Amanda Favret

FOTL Volunteer
afavret@cvtc.edu