Selling books is not just about the money, it is also about getting affordable books out to the community, Jeanne Hamilton, Charleston Carnegie Public Library director, said.

“We do see it as a community service or something to offer to the community,” she said. “We are a smaller community and it’s just another way people, book lovers, can get books in the community.”

The book sale will be hosted 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Friday and Saturday. The book sale will also be open from 1p.m.-5 p.m. on Sunday.

The book sale will be located on the west side of the library which is at 712 Sixth St.

Hardback books, audio books and DVDs will be $2 and paperback and children’s books, CDs, puzzles and games will be 50 cents.

Hamiton said half the money raised goes toward the library and the other half goes toward the Friends of the Library.

The Friends of the Library is a group that helps support the library programs.

“Any money that the Friends have eventually comes back to the library but they, kind of, choose where it’s going to go,” Hamilton said.

She said the Friends have given money to support the library’s summer read programs.

Other summer programs such as the fossil dig, animal underground show with live animals, preschool story time and the Oz the Great and Party-ful program.

Hamilton said the Friends also receive 50 percent off their purchases at the book sale.

While the current fiscal year budget for the library is about $450,000, the book sale helps support various programs, she said.

 “The last couple of sales, we’ve made around a $1,000 so that’s pretty exciting,” Hamilton said. “We’re, kind of, hoping for that. Over the past couple of years, we kind of changed the way we’ve done book sales.”

Hamilton said they used to keep books in storage but now they have a large room dedicated to storing and hosting the book sale.

“This allows us to have more book sales per year,” she said. “Each book sale, we have tried new and different things. We’re just really excited to have that opportunity.”

Hamilton said the large room is so stocked, she does not know how many will be available for the sale.

“I don’t even know what an estimate would be,” she said astounded. “I would guess that there are several thousand books in there.”

Amanda Wilkinson can be reached at 581-2812 or [email protected].