The Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library is hosting its biannual book sale of over 250,000 books this October. The booksale, which has become one of the top five largest book sales in the country, carries books, games, records, comics and more.
The sale has served as a fundraiser since 1946. Money raised through the sale will be donated to the Tompkins County Library, other local libraries and will be used for grants. It will officially kick off Oct. 11, lasting until Oct. 28 and will be open on select days until its conclusion.
Chris Hallam, coordinator of the Friends of the Tompkins County Public Library book sale, explained that the book sale is unique for its massive scale. In total, Hallam said that the sale generates over half a million dollars per year through the sale. The booksale happens twice a year, and both the Fall and Spring book sales earn nearly equal amounts of money. The last two sales had “a difference of like seven dollars,” according to Hallam.
All of the money raised from the sale is donated to the Tompkins County Public Library and other surrounding libraries in the Finger Lakes region. Hallam also said that additional money raised is donated in the form of three grants: a library grant, an education grant and a community grant.
“A library grant is for the library if they need money for a special collection,” Hallam said. “We have an education grant that goes to students who are studying library science … [and] the community grant, which is for other community organizations that do things with books.”
The sale also features the “Collectors’ Corner,” which only admits a certain number of browsers at a time. Book-buyers must wait for their name to be called to enter a small room of rare and valuable items.
“In the Collectors' corner, we also sell unusual things like a hemispheric gauge, which, if you line it all up with the stars, can tell you the tides,” Hallam said. “It's very strange some of those things we get.”
For Miguel Barrera ’24, the sale is exciting because of the “mystery” of items offered.
“You never know what you're going to find because they have books on everything from sports to travel to music,” Barrera said. “It's really kind of a mystery that I think is fun to go check out and see what's there this year.”
Although the sale only takes place twice a year, Hallam said that volunteers work a combined 14,000 hours for each sale. Once volunteers receive donations from the community, they must sort all the books into different categories and place them on the shelves. After the sale is concluded, volunteers then facilitate the donation of leftover books to local public and school libraries.
Diana Mena ’26 volunteered for the sale during her freshman year. Her shift was about six hours, where she worked on reorganizing the books and assisting patrons in finding what they needed. The experience was uplifting for Mena as she saw the sale’s impact on the community.
“I really liked what they stood for, cause it was very much great, wholesome, loving vibes and community vibes as well,” Mena said. “It made a lot of people happy and they made me happy to see those people happy.”
On Oct. 22, the sale will have a student night, where the books will be ¢10 to $1. Hallam also said that anyone is welcome to join the book sale by volunteering.
"You just can come in with a student ID and shop, and the prices go down after the first weekend — they go down every day,” Hallam said. “And we just have a good time here if anybody wants to come and volunteer.”
Dalton Mullins is a member of the Class of 2027 in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. He is a senior writer for the News department and can be reached at dmullins@cornellsun.com.
