HOUGHTON - Arms stacked with old books and new, patrons filtered in and out of the Memorial Union Building ballroom at Michigan Technological University Friday.
The Friends of the Van Pelt Library held their annual book sale Friday featuring table after table of donated books. The fundraiser serves as an excellent source of revenue for the FVPL which comes up with different projects every year in which to contribute to.
Event organizer Eloise Haller walked up and down the rows organizing the books as did other volunteers for the cause.
"This is the quietest it's been all day," she said at about 2:30 p.m. referring to the two dozen or so people browsing the different sections.
Books were organized into different categories, such as non-fiction, children's and biography, and volunteers, including students, took turns organizing books throughout the day.
"We've had wonderful volunteer student help," she said. "The Society of Intellectual Sisters does a fabulous job every year cashiering and yesterday afternoon, we had students from Tau Beta Pi come in and help us set up."
Just the day before, the book sale was open to members of the Friends of the Van Pelt Library, yet thousands of books were left for purchase Friday.
"It exceeded expectations," Haller said. "It was better than last year."
Haller said people seemed very happy with the prices - as low as 25 cents to $1 - and because of the free parking, patrons were able to stay and browse longer.
Even more students and community members flocked to the book sale for the bag sale when a brown bag of books is available for $5.
Next year's sale is slated for March 24 and 25 with the member pre-sale being on the 24th and the public sale the following day.
"I think it's great people are still reading," Haller said.
Stacey Kukkonen can be reached at skukkonen@ mininggazette.com.
