A book sale will be held around the Alumni Association Clock Tower on the north side of Booth Library Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Beth Heldebrandt, director of public relations at Booth Library, said the library staff will be setting up before the sale starts and people interested in purchasing books are asked to wait until 9 a.m. to begin looking at the available books.

“You’ll see us out there earlier and we’ll be getting things set up, but we’re very strict that we don’t start selling books until nine,” Heldebrandt said. “We don’t even let people browse until 9 a.m. because people tend to hide their favorites. So, we give everyone a fair shake at 9 a.m.”

The tables are open until 4 p.m. and students are encouraged to stop by and browse.

“We’ll be set up all day even if you just have a few minutes between classes or something you can stop by and take a look,” Heldebrandt said.

Those who are interested in purchasing books but have limited time will find a comprehensive organization system.

“The books are divided by topic so if you have an interest in music, or an interest in travel, or an interest in cooking or whatever, you can go right to that table and you don’t have to thumb through hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of books,” Hedlebrandt said.

Heldebrandt said that it’s an opportunity for students to purchase a variety of books.

“It’s a really great opportunity to get lots of different kinds of books for a really cheap price,” Heldebrandt said.

The books for sale come from outside donations to the library.

“We do get book donations all year long from on campus and off campus people and they just bring us their stuff and we see ‘do we already have this on our shelves’ and if we do is this a nicer, newer version, if so then we might swap them out and sell the older one,” Heldebrandt said. “So that’s a large part of it is books from the community but also our librarians as part of their jobs go through their respective sections and buy new stuff so we take the old stuff off our shelves.”

The funds made from the sale go back to Booth.

“(The money) goes to an account here at the library and we use it to improve library services, whatever that may be,” Heldebrandt said.

In case of bad weather, the sale will be postponed.

Allison Little can be reached at 581-2812 or at aclittle2@eiu.edu