During the week of October 18-24, the Baxter County Library is recognizing Margie Kelly, Friends of the Library member, and all of her fundraising efforts in celebration of National Friends of Libraries Week. As a longtime member of the Friends, she has sold thousands of dollars’ worth of donated, used books online to help generate funds for the Baxter County Library. Proceeds collected by dedicated volunteers like Margie are vital to keeping the Library’s heart beating.
In August 2020, Margie passed a huge milestone, raising a total over $100,000 in online used book sales, since she started 17 years ago. Her first few years of sales were slow and only netted about $200. Now, she raises upwards of $8,000 to $10,000 a year for the Library in sales. She spends about 90 hours a month volunteering – sorting and checking donated books at the Library, then packing and shipping sales from home. Organizing, listing, packing, weighing, shipping, and calculating fees are all a part of the complicated process to list each individual book that gets sold. The procedure to list and sell books online is certainly a time-consuming effort, but one that brings Margie personal fulfillment and purpose as every dollar earned helps support the Library’s programs and services.
Margie began volunteering with the Baxter County Library in 2003. She loves being surrounded by books and has channeled that passion into helping her local community. Her interest in reselling books for the Library was sparked when she had an epiphany seeing her husband browsing through the books at one of the Library’s used book sales. She realized many used titles for sale were priced far too low and could be sold secondhand through online retailers like Amazon and eBay for a higher price.
“I have volunteered with the Library for over 17 years now and have enjoyed every minute of it,” Margie details. “I love books, and I work with a great group of people each week. What could be better than that? I am proud to support the many programs and services that the Library provides for our community here in Baxter County.”
For those curious about what types of books might sell for a high price, Margie explains that books which typically fetch a high resale value are titles with niche, or specialized, demand. Niche titles include old children’s books for example — as parents are purchasing books they had read when they were younger to now read to their own children, or even children’s books read by grandparents to be passed on to their grandchildren. Other books that can sell for a high price include old titles from the 1800s-1900s. For instance, a rare and notable item sold was a Wyoming Livestock Brand Book from the 1900s which sold for $200.
The Library persists as a thriving community resource in Baxter County thanks to the support of the Friends of the Library who help sponsor special programming, scholarships, equipment, resources, reading programs, and more. The Friends of the Baxter County Library were founded in 1980 and are celebrating a 40-year anniversary this fall. Through the years, they have given over $600,000 to the Library. Friends provide funds not otherwise available to the Library through their membership dues, special contributions, annual auctions, and used book sales. Friends also provide the library staff with advanced training, education and appreciation awards for their fine effort to keep the Library a “State of the Art” facility and source of pride in Baxter County. Friends donate their time and hard work in our various programs and services. Friends also encourage gifts of books and materials to the Library.
If you are interested in becoming a member of the Friends of the Library, come visit the Library and ask for a membership form at the Information Desk. Membership dues are $5 a year. For more information, contact Nealus Wheeler, President of the Friends of the Library at 870-491-5114.
Library Director Kim Crow Sheaner stated, “Words cannot express how thankful we are for Margie. Volunteers as capable, dedicated, and as generous with their time as her are very rare. And our entire Friends of the Library organization is absolutely phenomenal, top-notch. They love the Library and our community, and they believe in giving back.” National Friends of Libraries Week is coordinated by United for Libraries, a division of the American Library Association. United for Libraries supports those who govern, promote, advocate, and fundraise for libraries, and brings together library trustees, advocates, friends, and foundations into a partnership that creates a powerful force for libraries in the 21st century. For more information, visit www.ala.org/united.
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