The Book Donation Lifecycle

An important revenue stream for the FOL and a way that FOL serves further our community is through monetizing book donations. Books that are donated to the library go through the following steps:

1. Library reviews to see if the book should be added to the collection.

2. FOL volunteers review books that are not needed for the library collection to see if they can be added to the FOL Nearly New Bookshelves for resale or sold at pop-up events like Farmers Markets or the Holiday Sale.

Insider Tip: Be sure to check the shelves on the first floor every time you visit the library, as they are continuously re-stocked. In addition, volunteers place some donated materials in Little Free Library boxes around town. Many of the children's book donations are given away for free.

3. Books that are not selected for FOL re-sale are then scanned and packaged by FOL volunteers and sent to a wholesale reseller such as ThriftBooks, where FOL makes money when the wholesaler sells them.

4. If an item has not been selected for one of the above uses, then it may end up being recycled as a last resort.