Organizing The Book Sale

From A To Z

By Jan Howard

It takes a lot of time and energy to categorize and alphabetize by author all the paperback books donated for the Cyrenius H. Booth’s annual book sale. Julie Starkweather gives that time and energy and more.

In addition to categorizing all the paperbacks, she began to alphabetize the romance novels by author last year, in addition to the alphabetizing she does of other paperback categories.

Ms Starkweather is in charge of the thousands of paperbacks that are donated to the library every year for its sale. Last year there were 14,000; 4,500 to 5,000 of them were romance novels. Other categories of paperbacks, in addition to romance, are fiction, mystery, thriller, science fiction, and westerns.

“I alphabetize them by author in categories,” Ms Starkweather said recently as she placed books by the same author together in a box and placed them in one of the new cabinets in the library’s boardroom.

“The Friends of the Library built the cabinets so the meeting room can stay neater and still be used for meetings,” she said. Previously, the room was literally covered with paperback books. Having the cabinets also speeds up the sorting of the books, she noted. Each cabinet houses a different category of paperback books.

“The books are in excellent condition,” she said. “We don’t include books that have covers missing or are smelly.”

Ms Starkweather continued working on the pile of paperbacks, while at the same time answering questions and advising book sale volunteers Lynn Bassett and Joy Ames on where to put books by certain authors.

The Booth Library’s 26th annual Labor Day Book Sale, featuring thousands of books in 70 categories, will be held from Saturday, September 1, to Wednesday, September 5, in Bridgeport Hall on the campus of the former Fairfield Hills Hospital.

Ms Starkweather has been a book sale volunteer for seven years. “I started working the book sale because I went to the sale and was looking for a particular book and couldn’t find it. I started sorting right then under the tent.”

She’s been sorting the books ever since. This year she expects to surpass last year’s 14,000-plus total. “Last year I didn’t have a real big science fiction category, but this year I’ve picked up a couple of thousand through donations of collections from Danbury and Weston,” Ms Starkweather said. “There were an enormous number of fiction paperbacks in the Danbury collection,” she added.

“People are kind enough to donate to us from all places,” she noted.

Ms Starkweather said categorizing and alphabetizing the books not only leads to people buying more books, “but we get more first and second day customers looking for specific books and authors. They don’t get frustrated and leave anymore.”

A resident of Newtown for 18 years, Ms Starkweather works every day during the book sale. “Everyone said it couldn’t be alphabetized.” With the tables being able to be set up earlier in the large Fairfield Hills facility, the book sale volunteers are able to do a much better job of organizing the books by category and author, she said. “Having Bridgeport Hall has been a big help to us.”

Not only does Ms Starkweather now alphabetize by author all the romance novels, she also lists them in sub-categories, including gothic, historical, intrigue, and romantic suspense.

“Romance suspense is beginning to be a fairly big category,” Ms Starkweather said.

“Smaller romances, what I call quick reads, are put together, as well as those of a series,” she said.

Ms Starkweather said it’s difficult to know how long it takes her to alphabetize, categorize, and sub-categorize all the paperbacks. “It takes me all year. I work on them four to six hours a week until August, then it’s five days a week.”

On August 4 when tables will be set up at Bridgeport Hall, she will begin working there, setting up the paperbacks by category and author.

Ms Starkweather has set a cut-off day of August 15 for considering new donations of paperbacks. “I can’t do it. At that point, I only have two weeks to take care of the final alphabetizing,” she said. “I put in heavy duty time then.”

Because of the popularity of the book sale, many books are gone by the second or third day, Ms Starkweather said. “If there’s a specific author that is wanted, come early,” she suggested.

The hours each day for the book sale are as follows:

Saturday, September 1, 9 am to 5 pm; adult admission, $10 from 9 am to noon, $5 from noon to 5 pm. Numbered tickets go on sale at 7 am at Fairfield Hills.

Sunday, September 2, 10 am to 5 pm.

Monday, September 3, 9 am to 2 pm, half price; 2:30 to 4:30 pm, $8 bag.

Tuesday, September 4, 2 to 6 pm, $8 bag.

Wednesday, September 5, 10 am to 4 pm, free books.

The book sale also features records and computer software. Refreshments will be available.

For more information, call 203-426-4533.