Friends of the Library Spring Book Sale Does It Again!

The Springfield-Greene County Library District's Friends of the Library just completed another highly successful book sale from April 30 to May 4, 2025. This year’s sale brought in a total of $204,739.85, the fourth highest sale to date, but in the minds of the Friends, it presented the biggest challenge. Due to Tuesday’s storms in Greene County, the Friends of the Library Preview Night was canceled because of a power outage. The preview sale typically generates around $60,000, so book lovers had to spread their shopping over the next five days.

The Friends of the Library have over 1,800 members, and many donate countless hours to the bi-annual book sales by sorting, cleaning, pricing and hauling boxes of books. The Spring sale featured six tractor-trailers full of items. Volunteers started setting up the sale on Sunday afternoon, April 27, working the sale all week and finally showing up on Monday, May 5, to load up the tables and recycle the remaining books.

Shirley Lawler, Friends of the Library President, said, “The Friends of the Library volunteers are the most dedicated and hardest-working group of people I have ever had the pleasure of working with during my many years of being involved with various organizations. It is absolutely unbelievable that we recovered from not being open on Friends' Night due to the power outage. Volunteers came together and opened on Wednesday morning (many volunteers didn't have power at their homes), and there were large crowds all week. These volunteers are truly amazing - I'm overusing that word, but there is no other word to describe them.”

The Library’s Community Relations Director Vickie Hicks stated, “we are deeply grateful to the Friends of the Library for all their hard work. The Library District uses book sale funds for capital improvements, the Summer Reading Program, music programs at the branches, as well as special events such as the Oh, The Horror! series. Most recently, the group committed $500,000 to the Republic Branch Library’s new construction project.

The Friends of the Library Fall Book Sale will be September 17-21, 2025.