Volunteers in Le Mars are selling thousands of used books to support their local public library.
A store in downtown Le Mars called “Second Chapter Gently Used Books” opens today. Coordinator Mary Albrecht credits former Wells Blue Bunny CEO Mike Wells with setting up a conveyor belt system from the building’s basement to its first floor. “It was in response to our concern about having storage in the basement and sometimes we’ll take 20 loads of books in at once,” Albrecht said, “and Mike got on the problem and he solved it.”
Mike Wells and his wife Cheryl also provided the building to the volunteer group. Albrecht said the Friends of the Le Mars Public Library Foundation has been selling used books for years, but they outgrew their previous location near a convenience store. “It really wasn’t suiting our needs well,” she says, “and ‘Second Chapter’ is a result of that search.”
The group’s creating a searchable inventory, so customers can ask if a certain book by a certain author is available for sale. Book prices range from $1 to $4. “We help pay for some of the summer reading program items. We do adult winter reading, adult fall reading. We pay for speaker fees sometimes if they have speakers and we also pay for book marks, book pages,” Albrecht says. “We just support some of the fun things at the library that aren’t always in the city budget.”
The store will be open Thursdays through Saturdays.
(By Dave Grosenheider, KLEM, Le Mars)