Springfield’s avid readers broke a record with the Friends of the Library spring book sale that ended Sunday with $205,639.70 in sales of used books, CDs, DVDs and more.
The sale kicked off with a record-breaking four-hour Friends Night preview sale on April 25 at the Ozark Empire Fairgrounds E*Plex, bringing in $57,597, according to a press release from the Springfield-Greene County Library.
Sales through the week continued with record-breaking totals nearly every day, the release said, prompting a Friends board member to text members, “Hang onto your phones and adjust your reading glasses because you are not going to believe the numbers…”
Friends of the Library is a nonprofit organization dedicated to raising supplemental funding for grants and programs throughout the Springfield-Greene County Library system. Since the establishment of The Friends of the Library, which is made up entirely of volunteers, it has raised more than $4 million for the Library in nearly four decades.
The Friends posted on their Facebook page at the end of the sale Sunday: “A VERY big Thank You to all who volunteered at our FOL Spring Book Sale and ALL who purchased books, etc. We broke a record we never imagined possible thanks to all of you. We made $205,639.70 — from which our libraries and community will benefit.”
With the spring sale over, the public can donate books and other items to any Springfield-Greene County Library branch, and the Friends volunteers will begin sorting, pricing and packing items for the fall book sale Sept. 13-17.