Paul Szmal: Welcome back to FLX Morning on Finger Lakes News Radio. It's 7.50. Joined in studio this morning by Spike Herzig and Deb Brewer because it's that time of year to talk about the Geneva Public Library's annual book sale. And Spike we'll start with you. Good morning sir. How are you?
Spike Herzig, Deb Brewer: Good morning. Doing well. Thank you. Wonderful. When is the book sale for this year? Well I will let Deb handle all that if you don't mind. She's got all the information in front of her. Deb, good morning. How are you?
Deb Brewer: Good morning to you. The sale goes from April 3rd through the 11th and it's every day there's different prices and we've got all kinds of books. We've got young children's books, adult books. We have puzzles. We've got all kinds of audio. So I know something for everybody.
Paul Szmal: And it sounds like quite the nice variety of items. How long does the sale run? Eight days. Eight days. And whereabouts can people find them? If you go into the public library there in Geneva on Main Street, it's upstairs on the second floor.
Deb Brewer: Okay. And the items that are being sold here, are these just like backstock items from the from the library? Items that have been in circulation for a while that are being replaced with new titles? Some might be but actually the bulk of the books that we have, the bulk of everything that we have, is given to us by donors, by the patrons, which is we're so ever thankful for. They constantly are giving us donations and we truly, truly appreciate it.
Paul Szmal: And that includes not just books but some stuff like puzzles and DVDs as well? Absolutely. Fantastic. Spike, what are the funds used for?
Spike Herzig, Deb Brewer: Gosh, there are a lot of good things. The foundation is really the fundraising arm of the library and we raise those funds through the Taste of Jazz, the first Sunday before the Super Bowl. Geneva Writes, we have the two book sales each year and with all that money we buy computers, hardware and software computers. We buy rugs and chairs, whatever is needed in the library. And this last week, to give you an idea, we sponsored the Read Across America, which is Dr. Seuss's thorax and a cat in a hat, and a puppet show. We had over 225 parents and students in our library on Saturday morning to see that show. So it's those sorts of things of what we're really trying to do. Those pieces of business that the library might have financially difficult times to do and we try to step in and take care of it.
Paul Szmal: Now, how many years has the book sale been going on? Oh, gee Louise, that's a good question. I've been with the organization for 15, 16 years and it was going on long before me. So yeah, 20 years maybe.
Paul Szmal: Wow, good long time. Yes. Now, who does all the staffing for all this? Because obviously people need to take care of the people that are coming in, buying the books and everything.
Spike Herzig, Deb Brewer: Strictly volunteers. All volunteer work. Deb and I and a number of others on our book sale committee kind of set it up, put it in motion. We also utilize the Hobart basketball team, which comes and helps us do the heavy work of moving the books from boxes and downstairs, upstairs. We have the William Smith volleyball team that comes and helps us tear down. So it's really a community endeavor.
Paul Szmal: And Deb, it looks like this is broken down into a couple of different sections here with the first section being April 3rd through the 5th.
Deb Brewer: Yes, those are the full price days. Then we go into discount days where we've obviously we've lowered the price on everything. Finally, towards the end we have a couple of bag sales, which is so much fun. You know, bring a bag, fill it. One day it's five dollars, next day two. The last day of the sale is a one dollar bag sale. Can't beat it. Put whatever you got in that bag and it's all a dollar.
Paul Szmal: Wow, that is tremendous. What a neat way to pick up some reading material or maybe some puzzles or some DVDs.
Deb Brewer: Absolutely, it's a great time for teachers, new teachers, old teachers come in and they can add to their classroom as far as books go. Yeah, it's a great time to get stuff. And we should emphasize that there's a variety of materials, as you said earlier, Deb, but not only for adults but for youth as well.
Deb Brewer: Yeah, absolutely. We have young children's picture books, we have young adult books, we have the graphic novels that the kids are starting to read, we have a whole box load of those. Yeah, there's something for everybody. And again, the sale starts on April the 3rd. Yep, and goes through the 11th. And it's at the Geneva Public Library. It is. And that's during regular library hours?
Spike Herzig, Deb Brewer: It is. The only difference is we start at 9 o'clock, the library opens most of the time at 830, but the sale does start at 9.
Paul Szmal: Alright, beautiful. Well, thank you very much for coming in and filling us in. We'll check in with you in a couple of weeks before we get into the stretch run of the sale. So, thank you. Alright, much appreciated. That's Spike Herzig and Deb Brewer from the Geneva Public Library joining us here talking about the annual book sale coming up on 756 on FLX Morning.
