The Carleton Library Circle of Friends will not be holding their annual book sale this year due to logistical problems, according to the group’s president.
Alyson Barlow said a lack of storage facilities and the complexity of handling “10s of 1000s of books” meant that the Circle of Friends no longer has the resources to hold another book sale.
“It was a very difficult, very sad decision to make,” she said.
The library supported the book sale by donating storage space in the basement for books, supplying tables, providing transportation to move the books and providing staff help, according to Barlow.
“Without their help, we would not have been able to run the book sale as long as we did,” she said.
The last book sale was held in October 2011. Proceeds of the sale went to the library’s endowment fund and student bursaries.
Margaret Haines, Carleton’s chief librarian, said that due to the library’s ongoing renovation work she had to use all available storage space to house the library’s present collection.
“The choice for me was keeping the storage for books for students, or keeping it for the book sale,” she said, adding that the library would continue to support the Circle in its activities but simply did not have any storage space to provide at the moment.
