The annual book sale made a profit of $6111.25 on April 9-10, 2000. Approximately 70% of the money taken in was between 2:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. on April 9 when the sale first opened. While a large number of books were sold between 5:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m . on April 10, the income was considerably less since this was the half-price and bag sale. Approximately $500 of income came from the ten dollar fee charged for the preview sale. Due to the chaotic environment when the sale opened for the preview customers, an exact count was lost, but we think we picked up at least 10 new preview customers.

Our preview customers came from as far away as Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, Indianapolis, Zionsville, Mooresville, West Lafayette Indiana and Baldwin Kansas. Last year we had someone from Oregon, so it does pay to advertise widely. Sending flyers to book s ellers and posting the information on our home page seems to work well, but often word of mouth seems to be how the message gets about. Whether or not InULA could actually accommodate more customers is questionable. More volunteers, more space, more books, more storage and more work from everyone would be required.

The quality of the stock this year was reported by preview customers as being as good as previous years. Although we had fewer books this year, it was because we had recycled many titles that we knew would not sell. The sorting committee was chaired by D avid Frasier along with Todd Ramlo, Gary Charbonneau, Tom Glastras, Bob Goehlert and Elizabeth Hanson. They kept the books sorted throughout the year as they came in. All of these sorters are book persons who have a good knowledge of what sells and does not sell on the used market, and their decisions helped make our sale one of quality.

The entire process went very smoothly. Only one problem occurred that was not foreseeable; the cash boxes constantly ran out of one dollar bills. We discovered that buyers were getting their twenties from the ATM machine in the library. This was a good problem to have, and library circulation departments helped out as they could. Nancy Boerner made trips to the bank on Monday to help out. David and I can recall no other problems.

Several recommendations: (1) that future sales focus on quality rather than quantity. This can be achieved by having librarians who frequent book sales, perhaps are collectors themselves, and who have experience with what sells and what does not, be responsible for the sorting; (2) that the prices be kept at their current level. People who attend sales such as this are like those going to garage sales; i.e., they want bargains and will keep returning if they get them. While it is likely that we did sell books for three dollars that one would find on the book seller's shelf for twenty dollars or more, we must keep in mind that the book seller may have the book for several years until the right buyer comes along. InULA must move the material quickly. The object should be to make a little money, find homes for as many "homeless books" as we can, and have fun. We also want as little as possible left over to carry down to the loading dock! Mr. Benham took the unsold material; (3) that InULA offer a letter to preview buyers should they want it that indicates their ten dollar fee is a donation. This was mentioned to several who did not seem to think it was necessary. The ten dollars is well worth the bargains they get. No one complained this year or last about the preview fee. We might want to consider dressing it up a bit with champagne (cheap of course) or wine. But again, the buyers are more keen on seeking out bargains than eating or drinking. These are serious book people who are pleased with our sale and know that they can get good stuff at good prices; (4) that we change the amounts for seed money to include more dollar bills, and that we make arrangements to get more if needed; (5) that we NOT raise the prices; we think it would adversely affect the sale; (6) that InULA not become too "heady" about the success of the past few years and assume that if we can break records for several consecutive years that it will continue with the same resources. For example, we had an offer of 150 boxes of books from IUPUI about five weeks before the sale. There was no way we could take them, sort them, find a place to store them, and possibly even sell them, without more staff, a truck and someone to drive it to get the books to Bloomington, etc. Given existing resources we are at the peak level that we can sustain.

About fifty librarians, staff and friends helped with the sale. UGLS once again allowed us to use a calculator, cash boxes and its safe for deposit of the money. Matt Myers and his crew took care of the set-up. The clean-up was completed 2-3 hours ahead of what we had scheduled.

The poster by Fine Arts professor Amos Kennedy of Amos Kennedy and Sons, Fine Printers was well done. InULA is grateful to Professor Kennedy for his generous contribution to the success of this year's book sale.

Following are the names of those who gave time and energy to the fund-raising event. Special thanks goes to David Frasier who took care of all of the Bloomington details, Marian Shaaban who looked after the working party for publicity, and Mary Popp who helped in various capacities before and after the sale. She even took time from her sabbatical to help with it.

Book Sale volunteers: Larry Griffin, David Frasier, Nancy Boerner, Moira Smith, Ann Bristow, Mary Popp, Andrea Morrison, Jo Burgess, Murlin Croucher, Todd Ramlos, Cynthia Ramlos, Bob Goehlert, Marian Shaaban, Ann Haynes, Joanne Deeken, Lou Malcomb, Lois Heiser, Julie Nilson, Wen-Ling Liu, Taemin Park, Barbara Henn, Lewis Johnson, Phyllis Simon, Mr. Simon, B.J. Irvine, Frank Quinn, Celestina Wroth, Cynthia Baxter, Andrea Singer, Elizabeth Johnson, Elizabeth Hanson, Mary Buechley, Mohammad Rajaii, Grace Jackson-Brown, Anne Bock, Suzanne Mudge, Mary Krutulis, Lois Sewell, Emily Okada, Sylvia Turchyn, Tom Glastras, Patty Vahey, Jan VanAuken, Saundra Taylor and a student named Chris. There were several others whose names I did not get down.