No, Thank You!

Board books that are chewed and eaten. A bag of books covered in dust and dirt. Books with water stains, mold—and worse, rotting from red rot on the inside. Some with no covers. Some without spines. Coloring books that have been colored in, books with bugs, and sticker books missing the stickers.
Um… The Friends of the Millis Public Library are going to pass, thanks.
“It’s just gross. You would be surprised. If there’s just one sticker missing, that’s one thing,” says Sandra Scott, President of the Friends of the Millis Public Library, who appreciates the thoughtful book donations from many patrons. Donations of books that are falling apart or can’t be sold for some reason, however, are a little less than thoughtful. They actually end up a burden to the library, that will then need to unload the junk. Sometimes one man’s trash is best put in the trash, not donated.
“We actually sell our books at a decent price to make some money to pay for the stuff the friends pay for that is not covered in the library budget,” says Scott. “That’s why the book sale is really important as a fundraiser, but we can’t charge if people are giving us (junk).”
In fact, the Friends of the Millis Public Library have been asked by other Friends groups how their sale is so successful, and the answer is “because we sort that stuff out. People will come to the sale and stay longer and actually buy more, because they realize it’s not like your average garage sale.”
Scott says the Friends stop taking book donations the week before the book sale, in order to take the time to carefully go through the donations (so drop that bag of nice book donations by sooner rather than later!).
How does your donation rate? Scott says the answer is simple.
“We really appreciate people donating to the sale, and coming – this really supports the museum passes, a lot of the children’s programming, the adult programming and the music,” says Scott, “but before you donate, look at everything and ask, would you buy this?”