Garrett Neese/Daily Mining Gazette James Langsford, a Michigan Technological University mechanical engineering senior, and Paul Langsford, a chemical engineering master’s student, look at books during the annual MTU Friends of the library book sale Friday. It was the first time the spring sale had been held since 2019.

HOUGHTON — Computing textbooks, novels and mining histories were all up for grabs Friday as the Friends of the MTU Library held its first spring book sale since 2019.

The sale, held Thursday and Friday in the Memorial Union Building, was canceled in 2020 and 2021 due to COVID-19.

“We did have our winter carnival sale earlier, but this is our biggie,” said Susan Martin, vice chair of the Friends board. “This is where we hopefully raise enough money to support our projects at the library.”

The board, which has two representatives from the student body, puts out requests to see what students would like, such as new technology. Funds from the book sale also help sponsor a graduate from an archival librarianship to intern for the MTU Archives.

They’ve also helped supply artworks from local artists to brighten the halls, or gone towards the library’s casual reading collection for students.

Supply money to the library when they want to buy casual reading collection for students.

“When they put out requests, we try to meet them,” Martin said. “That’s our mission. Spend our money for them.”

The amount made through the sale varies, but runs in the thousands of dollars, Martin said.

Books for the sale come from two main sources. The presale Thursday night, open to Friends of the Library members, included the first group — donations from people in the community. Many retiring faculty members — including Martin, a professor emerita in social sciences — gave books when they cleaned out their office.

The main sale on Friday also includes books being discarded from the Tech library’s collection.

“It’s a way to find some interesting bargains on all levels, from fiction to scholarly books, to physics textbooks if that’s your thing, lots of media of various kinds,” Martin said.

After three years away, the group had built up a large collection. To help with culling, all fiction books were half-price.

Some of the most popular items tend to be fiction, local history, or textbooks, Martin said.

Three retired chemical engineering professors had donated books from their collection. James Langsford, a senior mechanical engineering major, came to the sale and tipped off Paul Langsford, a master’s student in chemical engineering.

Due to a lack of space and money, Paul had only grabbed a book on the physical properties of rocks and minerals. James, who’d heard about the books Paul had gotten at the 2019 sale, had amassed a hefty stack.

“It might be a little out of date, but especially with engineering it doesn’t really change that much, because you can’t really change physics,” he said.

Ian Fleury, a transfer student in mechanical engineering, had picked up a Carl Sagan book.

“It’s quite the welcome surprise,” he said. “I was planning on running down and grabbing a book, because I finished mine. But this was here today, so I get a new book.”