Saluting Norfolk’s Volunteers

Photo By Ann Havemeyer

I started working on the Norfolk Library book sale with my mom, Hatsy Taylor. It was one thing we happily did together, and I slowly inherited the job as her health declined. So I partly do it in her honor. I love the books and feel it is a mission of sorts to recycle them, more than it is a fundraiser, although this is a nice byproduct for the library. I’ve made some changes. For one, I started making books free on the afternoon of the second day. This has grown every year and is my favorite moment of the sale. It was always so disheartening to be left with a lot of unsold books, but free books reduces the leftovers by half! And people are amazed and so grateful that they are free. 

So many people contribute to the success of the book sale. First, people generously donate books, knowing they will go to new readers. It’s hard to part with one’s precious books, and this is a kind of service we provide. I love being with the books, sorting through and boxing them, which I do a bit obsessively, to get each box evenly and tightly packed. A few sorters help me all year. And Trish Deans goes through thousands of books to determine if they have extra value. The day of the sale is a total community effort—with so many volunteers!—to get the books out, onto tables, bought and sold and then all cleaned up. It’s a gift just to be part of it.