OKLAHOMA CITY — This weekend, the Metropolitan Library System’s Friends of the Library Book Sale is set to once again send bookworms into a frenzy and fill the fairgrounds with the most voracious readers and book collectors from across Oklahoma and beyond.
For the 45th year, the Friends of the Library – the Metro Library System’s volunteer-driven non-profit arm – is organizing hundreds of thousands of books into a weekend-long blowout sale to help thin the annually overflowing library stock, and help to raise big money for the library system.
The sale will run Saturday, February 22 through Sunday, February 23 at the fairgrounds’ Oklahoma Expo Hall from 9am to 5pm both days, and excited book buyers can expect a stock of more than 500,000 books collected from library extras, massive donation hauls, and “retired” selections from the library’s circulation.
“We have a great system with 19 locations across the city, and our full collection circulates throughout all of those locations throughout town,” said MLS Development and Volunteer Services Director Heather Zeoli in a conversation with Free Press before last year’s sale. “So when a book has reached its maximum service life, it’s withdrawn and given to us for the sale.”
But even after four and a half decades of OKC’s largest and most-anticipated annual book sale, the Friends of the Library are still finding new ways to help fine-tune and streamline the process.
New this year is an in-depth online guide to the sale to help plan and prepare for the crowds and the staggering selection, as well as newly dedicated hours on Sunday morning that will be reserved for shoppers with more specific needs.
From 9am to 12pm on Sunday morning, only 500 shoppers will be admitted at a time and admission preference during those hours will be given to shoppers that need a little extra space or time to browse, such as guests using canes or wheelchairs.
Additionally, there will be none of the sale’s usual loud, amplified announcements made during those special hours Sunday morning to offer a more sensory-friendly experience for shoppers that need or prefer that environment.
Throughout the weekend, guests will enjoy the usual “by bag” bulk pricing, inviting shoppers to fill bags to the brim for only dollars at a time.
But there’s also a separate “Better Books” section with individually priced items in better condition and sometimes much more rare or more heavily in-demand, the kind of selection that brings out collectors and aficionados to line up early on Saturday morning.
“People come from all over for this,” Zeoli told us. “They plan vacations around it.”
As always, the Friends of the Library Book Sale is a monumental volunteer effort that’s planned and prepped all year-round in anticipation of the big weekend.
“We have approximately 1,000 volunteers that come through and do this event,” Zeoli said. “It’s such an incredibly diverse group of people. They’re what makes the booksale happen.”
The Metropolitan Library System’s Friends of the Library Book Sale takes place Saturday, February 22nd through Sunday, February 23rd from 9am to 5pm both days, with a sensory-friendly and accessibility-friendly shopping period set for 9am to 12pm on Sunday.
For more information, visit supportmls.org/fol and support the Friends of the Library all year-round with book sales through their Amazon and eBay stores.
Brett Fieldcamp has been covering arts, entertainment, news, housing, and culture in Oklahoma for nearly 15 years, writing for several local and state publications. He’s also a musician and songwriter and holds a certification as Specialist of Spirits from The Society of Wine Educators.
