Twice a year at Eastern, Booth Library hosts a book sale for faculty, staff, students and members of the community.

The book sales happen once in the fall and once in the spring.

According to Booth Library news, the book sale will take place on Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

The Spring Book Sale’s purpose allows people to discover new and inexpensive books, journals and magazines.

The deals are 25 cents for magazines, one dollar for paperbacks and two dollars for hardbacks.

All of the money goes toward the fundraising for the library.

They allow cash, check or credit/debit cards.

Beth Heldebrandt, who was in charge of the book sales, said, “We have a lot of books that are donated to us just from the community and campus members all year long.”

“I like going out there and getting good deals even though I have a bookshelf overflowing at home,” Heldebrandt said. “It’s very difficult not to go out there and still buy more.”

Booth has collections of different items that are put into the library, and what they cannot use, students are able to buy.

“Occasionally our librarians will go through the books that we have on the shelves, and if there are books that are getting older or things that haven’t been checked out over the years, sometimes we’ll put some newer stuff in and take some of the old stuff out,” Heldebrandt said.

The Spring Book Sale is a part of National Library Week.

Heldebrandt is one of many who is on the National Library Week Committee along with Bill Schultz, chair of the committee.

Schultz said he hopes that people enjoy themselves while purchasing books.

“Our primary goal is that people have fun and that they find things to buy,” Schultz said. “We hope that there will be fewer books out there than there were to begin with.”

Each person on the committee has different ways that they take part in the book sale.

“We have to reserve the clock tower quad, we make a schedule of people out there to work from the library: faculty, staff and student workers,” Schultz said. “We also get some volunteers, and there’s a lot of physical labor involved with moving the books out there and arranging those.”

Shultz said he takes part in creating a table plan for the books and a lot of the heavy lifting.

Each person on the committee takes part in something and contributes.

“It’s hard work, but it is a fun event. I used to like having yard sales and things on my own, so it’s sort of like that,” Schultz said. “It’s fun seeing the types of things that people are picking out to buy. You never know what people are going to like or want.”

The weather plays an important role in the book sale, and if it starts to rain then it will be postponed accordingly.

Abby Lee can be reached at 581-2812 or at aalee2@eiu.edu.