Between Saturday, July 11, when the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library opens the doors at Reed Intermediate School for the 40th Annual Book Sale, and Wednesday, July 15, the final day, close to 3,000 book lovers will have passed through the cafetorium, lobby, gymnasium, and three staff rooms to select from more than 120,000 books, DVDs, CDs, and LPs. It is a far cry from the Labor Day Monday in 1975 when library patron Joanne Zang set up a card table in front of the library, piled it with library discards, and sold them for 25 cents each.

“I made $35 for the library,” she laughed.

Ms Zang got the idea for a book sale from library staff member Maureen Armstrong, who sometimes sold well-loved books in the lobby for five and ten cents.

“I thought I could raise more than five or ten cents for books,” she said, “so I gathered a table of the discards and outdated books together out front of the library and sold them before and during the Labor Day Parade.”

Antique book expert, John Renjilian, a relative newcomer to the town, as was Ms Zang at the time, happened upon the sale.

“I bought some books at the sale and talked to her about working at the sale the next year,” he said. Ms Zang, he said, seemed skeptical of his knowledge and his ideas that used books could be sold for far more than she was asking. While he was there, a resident donated a box of books to Ms Zang. When a shopper selected a book from the box, she brought the book to Mr Renjilian and asked his advice.

“I said, ‘You can get five bucks for it,’” Mr Renjilian said. The patron bought the book, and Mr Renjilian has been the book sale rare and antiques expert since.

“With John Renjilian joining up, it went from a tag sale of books to a sale that appealed to professional dealers,” said Denise Kaiser, who has volunteered in some capacity with the group since 1989, and has served as book sale chairperson since 2005.

“I knew this book sale could draw a big crowd of dealers, The Redding Mark Twain Library did, and they are only five miles away,” Mr Renjilian said.

“Over the years, I’ve learned so much about books. I’ve learned about rare books from John (Renjilian); we have exlibrarians and former teachers who volunteer in the sorting room and at the sale, and I learn from them every day. I’ve learned about ISBN numbers. It’s endless,” said Ms Zang, who has served as the prime organizer of the sale and as the chairperson for many years.

“I gave up the chairmanship when we raised a million dollars. And we have raised another million dollars since then,” Ms Zang said.

“The sale has become more modern and fact-based [than in its early years], assisted by the rise of the Internet,” Ms Kaiser said. “The kernel is, how to bring in more money for the library.”

The growth of the Annual Book Sale has leap-frogged in size and breadth since that first year. The second year, Mr Renjilian insisted everything had to be priced. The sale was advertised, and expanded to include the Saturday and Sunday before Labor Day. Donations of used books were solicited, and residents responded. The one table grew to several; then books were sold in the old board room, too. Tents were added outside of the library and in the back lot, and shoppers enjoyed entertainment. Vendors were invited to sell their wares, “And Marie Walker’s brownies didn’t hurt,” said Ms Kaiser.  (Ms Walker was C.H. Booth Children’s Librarian for many years.) “She organized the food tent for years.” In recent years, the Boy Scouts have run the food tent.

In 1992, the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library reformed after disbanding in 1981, Ms Zang said. Since then, the money raised by the book sale has been handled by this organization, rather than volunteers handing over the proceeds directly to the library.

In 1996, with the library undergoing renovations, the sale moved into an empty store in the Queen Street Shopping Center, the first of several migrations it made until settling in Reed Intermediate School in 2006. Shelton Hall at Fairfield Hills housed the sale in 1997; then from 1998 to 2005, the sale took place in Bridgeport Hall at Fairfield Hills. By this time, the book sale covered five days. The year 2005 found the sale back in tents on the Fairfield Hills campus and in Newtown Hall.

With the move to the comfortable, spacious — and air-conditioned — Reed Intermediate School, the sale changed its sale date from Labor Day to the weekend after July 4. While volunteers still find a few patrons surprised that the sale is no longer a Labor Day event, that change has been a positive move, said Ms Kaiser.

The Friends of the C.H. Booth Library Book Sale is now the biggest book sale in the state, and possibly in all of New England, said Mr Renjilian. It is also the sale the kicks off the “book sale season,” he said. It is the combination of organization, promotion, and merchandising, along with willing, hard-working volunteers that has made this possible, said Ms Kaiser.

From the time when a shopper walked up to the book tables in the Queen Street Shopping Center and began alphabetizing them, to the use of expert volunteers for each of the 90 categories, this sale is well known for the ease with which dealers and other bibliophiles can shop.

“As far as organizing, our sale has been a step ahead. Other sales are following suit,” said Ms Kaiser. All adult fiction is alphabetized, which includes a huge portion of the inventory. Children’s books are organized by reading levels, and series.

“We have to make it easy for shoppers to find books. Overall, we want everything easier for our customers,” said Ms Zang.

“Merchandising principles rise from what we’d like to see, ourselves, in a sale. That’s how a business works. We serve the customer,” she said. A secure holding area in Reed Intermediate is available on Saturday for those with large quantities of purchases, she said, and extended hours on Monday and Tuesday accommodate book lovers who work all day, but don’t want to miss out on the sale.

Toni Earnshaw is the promotional expert for the sale. She has been a volunteer for seven years, attracted by the high level of professionalism she observed from the customer standpoint.

“Each category of books or DVDs or what have you has an expert organizing it,” Ms Earnshaw said. Those experts may be people with professional or personal experience, or a knowledgeable interest in the area. “They get to know what does or doesn’t sell,” she said, and that is very helpful in the culling that the book sorters must do throughout the year. “Our quality of items has gotten better, as well,” she pointed out. Many of the donations the library now receives are in like new condition. All DVDs and audio books are electronically inspected and guaranteed to be playable. Jigsaw puzzles are guaranteed to have all the pieces, thanks to dedicated volunteers who put together every puzzle before it is sold

“Gladys McLaughlin was a volunteer for decades, who brought in the idea of accepting and selling puzzles,” said Ms Earnshaw. “She passed away this past year, but was with us up to the last weeks of her life. She put together, with others, every puzzle we received, and they are big sellers.”

The dedication of the book sale volunteers is “either in your DNA or not,” joked Ms Kaiser. “The people who work on the sale, we belong together,” she said.

After the first successful year, Ms Zang recognized the need for more volunteers. “I began to bring together people I liked, and I still do. We have had a lot of interesting people working with us, and we still do,” she said.

There are approximately 25 year-round volunteers, said Ms Kaiser, and when it comes to the final weeks before and during the sale, “We top 100 volunteers.”

Volunteers stick around, once they join. “We have a low turnover,” Mr Renjilian noted, and some volunteers cannot stay away, no matter what.

“[Former Friends of the C.H. Booth Library president] Mary Maki will be here to help at the sale, coming from Virginia, where she now lives. Kaaren Valenta [former assistant editor at The Newtown Bee] usually returns from Florida to help. Julie and Peter Stern, long-time volunteers who moved to Pennsylvania last year, won’t be back” said Ms Kaiser, “but they are now running a book sale where they moved to.”

Volunteering is not work to Ms Zang, even after four decades. “It’s learning something all the time, and being involved with a very cohesive group.”

“It’s a great group,” agreed Mr Renjilian, “and it’s a great cause, and working with books is a pleasure.”

“I get a kick out of the people,” said Ms Earnshaw. “It’s a remarkably fun and bright group.”

Many people from local organizations step up, as well, when it comes time to move books, set up the tables at Reed Intermediate School, and staff the five days of the sale, Ms Kaiser said, for which the group is grateful.

Sale organizers do not fear the rise of technology and e-books. They have learned to embrace technology with grace, accepting Beta and VHS tapes for years; then phasing those out as DVDs and BluRay became more popular. CDs have morphed to MP3s, and Netflix and streaming will eventually cause organizers to phase out DVDs, they expect.

“With book sales, though, there is a time lag. E-readers are shaking out. People read electronic and  ‘old-fashioned’ books, too, so we have not seen a drop off in donations or sales of books,” Ms Earnshaw said.

Ms Kaiser observed, “There is a perception that books and e-readers are a zero-sum game. What we see is happening, is that people are using e-readers and becoming readers. It is actually expanding the pool of readers and people interested in literature.”

There is also the lure of books at bargain prices, many priced under $5. That is a price hard for many e-books to beat. Dealers are quick to snap up valuable editions, knowing they are priced fairly for the market.

The success of the sale is apparent in the final tally. Last year, the Annual Book Sale grossed $100,000, with just under $90,000 net. It is a benchmark that organizers hope to meet, and perhaps exceed, again this year. All of the proceeds, minus expenses for moving trucks, custodians, advertising, and table rental, support library programs throughout the year. A successful 40th Anniversary Annual Book Sale is a success for residents who will benefit from the improved services at the C.H. Booth Library, said the organizers, and they look forward to welcoming each and every reader at this year’s sale.

The 40th Anniversary Annual Book Sale, presented by the Friends of the C.H. Booth Library, takes place Saturday, July 11, through Wednesday, July 15, at the Reed Intermediate School, Trades Lane, across from Fairfield Hills. Numbered admission tickets, for Saturday only, go on sale that day at 7 am — but do not be surprised to find boxes that were set up days ahead to hold a place in line for Saturday. There is an admission fee of $5 on Saturday only, with those 18 years of age and under free. The sale runs Saturday and Sunday, from 9 am to 5 pm. Monday and Tuesday, July 13 and 14, hours are 9 am to 7 pm, and on Wednesday, the sale hours are 9 am to noon. Monday is half price day; Tuesday is $5 a bag day; and Wednesday, all items are free.

Look for $2 off coupons at various business locations around town.

For more information e-mail boothbooksale@yahoo.com, call 203-426-4533, or visit the website at www.boothbooksale.org.