The Alachua County Friends of the Library (FOL) spring book sale will run April 20- 24, said to be the largest sale of its kind in the southeast. 

Though FOL’s go-to statement says there are over 500,000 books, records, games, CDs, DVDs, audio, paintings, posters, prints, puzzles and magazines, publicity chairman Sue Morris said she suspects the number is an underestimate at this point. 

“It doesn’t matter where you are,” Morris said, “you will turn around and you will find something that will catch your eye.” 

The sale takes up every inch of the 14,000-square-foot Friends of the Library facility at 430 N. Main Street, with six months’ worth of donated items sorted into categories. 

Each category has a table, and Morris estimated there are at least 60-65 table coordinators, all volunteers. Even more volunteers take three-hour shifts sorting the books to send them to the right tables. 

Once books arrive in their appropriate categories, the table coordinators research each volume to determine its pricing. The same is done for other items such as art, CDs, games and vinyl records. 

Most books are priced between 25 cents and $5, and boxes full of excess volumes line a wall, ready to restock shelves as they empty during the sale. 

Shoppers are asked to bring their own boxes and can pay using cash, check or credit card. The Large Order Area is available on Saturday and Wednesday for orders of eight or more boxes per person. 

The sale will be open from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, April 20, and noon to 6 p.m. from April 21-24. On Tuesday, April 23, items will be half-priced, and on Wednesday the books will all be 10 cents each. 

The Collector’s Corner and FOL annex are only open the first four days and will be closed on the 10-cent day. 

About 400 people will be allowed inside at a time. As they leave, more will be let in to take their places. This format, which Morris said is a carry-over from post-COVID practices, helps keep the sale less chaotic. 

In past years, some shoppers have camped overnight to be at the front of a line that stretches down the road on the first day of the sale. Volunteers said FOL provides portable toilets for the campers, many of whom have their eyes set on a specific item from the Collector’s Corner. 

The Collector’s Corner is a designated area with books determined to be of particular interest for various reasons—they are often first editions, signed editions, old, rare or out of print. 

The Corner also has other items, such as catalogs, music and photos. This year the Corner has an extensive collection of NASA materials and memorabilia, a signed first edition of “Pilgrim at Tinker Creek” by Annie Dillard, a signed first edition of “Is This Anything?” by Jerry Seinfeld, a first edition of “The Maltese Falcon” by Dashiell Hammett, a 1533 edition of “Works of Apuleius” by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis and a 1796 first edition of “The Laws of the United States of America” by Richard Folwell. 

A longer list of items sorters found to be worth highlighting can be found on the FOL website, here. 

Almost an entire wall of the Corner is made up of books about Florida and local history, and many other volumes are classic children’s books. Some of the rarer Collector’s Corner items are expensive, but other items are only a few dollars. 

Every book sale has different products, with different histories, which volunteers said stimulates the “enthusiasm of discovery” that keeps them coming back to work on the sale. 

“I feel so entrusted that people trust us with these things,” Holly Prugh, who is a table coordinator for books about Florida, said. “It’s so exciting… and I think, what is the pathway of this book?” 

The books and other items are mostly donated by local people, but some are brought or sent by donors across the country. 

Funds raised through the book sale go to promoting literacy in Alachua County, including through literacy programs like Snuggle Up and Read, helping Alachua County Library District renew its book collection, mini grants and scholarships for library workers pursuing further education in the library field. 

“It’s our gift to the city and to the state and to those people who want to come,” said Linda Connell, a volunteer in the Collector’s Corner.