Posted on: Monday, July 1, 2002

Eight-day book sale starts this Saturday

By Will Hoover
Advertiser Staff Writer

It began 55 years ago on the front lawn of Arcadia, the Punahou Street home of Territorial Gov. Walter Frear. The book sale took in $400.

It all went so well that someone said, let's do it every year.

Since then the Friends of the Library of Hawai'i book sale has generated more than 12,500 times its original humble earnings — that comes to $5 million plus — and has blossomed into what Caroline Dvojacki claims "is the largest book sale of its kind in the United States."

To prove her point, Dvojacki, executive director of the Friends of the Library, points at 70 tons of books stuffed into 3,000 cardboard boxes that she and her squad of volunteers are scrambling to sort and line up along the rows of tables and shelves at the annual Friends of the Library book sale, which starts Saturday at the McKinley High School cafeteria.

And it's not only hardbacks. There are records, sheet music, CDs, audio and video cassette tapes, maps, puzzles, magazines and pulp fiction and collectibles.

If the book sale goes according to plan, the Friends expect to hand the 50-library state system a check that equals or tops the $108,900 it turned in last year.

The money will be used to buy new books and equipment, and to pay for programs that promote "the joys of reading and lifelong learning," as Dvojacki puts it. She's confident because the Friends have had so much practice.

"Ours is one of the oldest and most active Friends of Library groups in the country," she said of the organization that was founded in 1879. "We are celebrating 123 years of service to the people of Hawai'i."

To make the annual book sale work, the Friends need volunteers. Friends has a core of 30 volunteers who process books throughout the year. But Dvojacki says she needs 10 times that many during sale week, which begins Saturday and ends July 13.

She urges anyone who wants to lend a hand to call 536-4174.