Hundreds of people spent hours perusing tens of thousands of books that were boxed and stacked in three different areas of the Cazenovia Public Library this past weekend for the annual Friends of the Library book sale. The annual event is one of the library’s biggest fundraisers of the year, as well as a much-anticipated event for area residents and bibliophiles.

“There’s probably as many books for sale as there are in the library,” said library Director Betsy Kennedy last Friday afternoon, just hours before the Friday night preview sale began. “We’ve been getting tons of calls from people asking when we open.”

The sale began at 9 a.m. Saturday, July 27, and while a line of eager shoppers began forming around 8:45 a.m. in the library’s upper parking lot, the queue was much smaller than it has been in past years.

“I’m excited right now,” said Morrisville resident Anna Marie Vaughan who attends the Cazenovia Library book sale every year. “It’s great that it’s not very busy, then I can look and not feel like I’m getting in anybody’s way.”

The event continued until 5 p.m. that night, then reopened on Sunday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday was also the dollar-a-bag sale day.

Morning rains on Sunday contributed to a larger turnout for the sale than on Saturday, which was a mild summer day with competing area events such as the New Woodstock Old Home Days and the Madison County Open Farm Day.

Dozens of volunteers — including numerous local high school students — had spent two days moving, unloading and lining books in the sale area of the community room, the library barn and the front lawn tent. Before that, they spent countless hours sorting the books: some were kept by the library to replace worn-out copies, most went into the sale and some were donated straight to various local charities and organizations such as the Salvation Army and Caz Cares, Kennedy said.

“We can’t thank our volunteers enough,” Kennedy said Sunday afternoon. “Some have been here the entire weekend. It has been an amazing community event.”

The number of books donated by the community that made up the sale was about the same as it has been in past years, said Friends of the Library board member George Schmit, who also participated in the preparation and sale.

“I’d say there [was] a better selection, higher quality books in the barn this year,” he said.

The total number of books sold and funds raised for the library was not tallied as of press time, but in past years the average has been around $9,000 and tens of thousands of books, Kennedy said.

Any books not sold during the sale — and annually there are far too many to make an accurate count — get re-boxed and donated to various local charities.

Jason Emerson is editor of the Cazenovia Republican. He can be reached at [email protected].