Axe Library hosts fifth annual Spring Book Sale

The Leonard H. Axe Library held its fifth annual Spring Book Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, April 18. The sale took place inside the library, with three tables on the ground level filled with books and more tables on the first floor.  

Jorge A. Leon, learning and outreach librarian, was in charge of organizing the sale and said the goal was to engage with the community as well as “recruit and get people to read more.” 

“…One of the things with the book sale is to engage our community, engage students, make sure people feel like they’re participating with what’s going with at the library,” Leon said.  

The books sold were materials donated throughout the year by community members, Pitt State faculty and staff.  

“We have a lot of materials here that people donate over the years and we want to make sure, if there is a way for us to find a good home for some books that we can,” Leon said. 

The prices for the books were $1 for hard-cover books and $0.50 for paper-back books. According to Leon, the prices were intentionally low, so the books were more accessible to buyers. 

“The way I’ve always seen it, it’s not necessarily a thing for me to turn the highest profit, but an opportunity for me to get the materials out to folks,” he said. “So, having a lower price means people are more inclined to get additional books, are more inclined to feel it’s a really good deal, are more interested in the materials. That, to me, is very important.” 

Pittsburg community member, Virginia Rigensberg heard about the sale from the Joplin Globe newspaper and said the low prices caught her attention. 

“…Sometimes, I can’t afford to buy these books, and this is the only way I can really read them,” Rigensberg said. “Christian romance is what I usually like to read, and they had quite a few options here.” 

The books were arranged on tables that were labeled by genre. There was a wide variety of genres including classics, thrillers, mystery, romance, foreign language, children’s books and more. 

“It’s the wide selection (I enjoy), I get to discover new authors and just really explore genres,” said Kara Ragan, freshman in business management. “I think it’s important for them to have a good selection, whether it’s renting or having book sales like this…” 

Ragan purchased five books and said she was excited the library was having a book sale as she “loves to read”. 

“Actually, I had to get out my phone and start typing titles otherwise I would have brought a whole box home and I have no space for those,” Ragan said. “Just really advertising students reading (is important) and getting more into worlds because that’s what I like about reading is I can kind of escape my life into something else and get some life experience from that…” 

According to Leon, the proceeds from the sale go towards programming of events at the library. 

“…We do a lot of things and in the last few years we’ve been adding more late-night activities, adding to more programming towards Dead Week and finals, so a lot of the funding we get here helps with those activities.” 

Unsold books would be put away for next year’s sale or be sold in other local sales. 

“I think reading gives us an opportunity to glimpse into a different world, be able to view something an author created for fun or non-fiction and the more we get exposed to, the better we are prepared for different things in the world, different ways to express our creativity,” he said. 

Leon said he hoped the sale encouraged people to read more. 

“I’m always trying to…. give people a sense of renewed curiosity in reading, a renewed sense of interest in a different genre, maybe that they found something really different and they want to spark that interest in reading,” Leon said.