This week the University springs into action as the first week of September begins, and new students accustom themselves to the Victoria University campus. This week’s blog post will be looking at another flurry of activity on Vic campus: the group of people who work behind the scenes tirelessly to make sure the Booksale is a big success!

The Victoria College Booksale volunteers are a knowledgeable, upbeat and diligent group of people, many of them alumni of Victoria University, and all of them friends and supporters of the Victoria University Library. They work all year round to organize for this September event, and the process is an involved one that relies upon the support and commitment of all those involved.

Donations of books are welcomed, received and processed over the course of the entire year, and drop-­offs are encouraged a good six or more months in advance. Starting in November, books are already beginning to be organized and processed for the following year’s Booksale.

Books - packed, priced, sorted and ready for the sale

Volunteers will spend hours down in the basement of the Victoria University library, in the cold days of winter to the balmy days of summer, pouring over book donations and sorting them. The Booksale has over 50 different categories, which include popular genres such as Cooking, English Lit, Film or Mysteries, but also includes many lesser known genres such as Astronomy, Environmental Studies, Fantasy , and the always exciting Rare Book section, well­-loved by book collectors and students alike. The Booksale also boasts sizeable CD, DVD and Vinyl sections, which hold some great treasures to be touched upon in next week’s post.

Categorizing and pricing a book takes time, as volunteers need to assess the quality of the
book’s condition, the edition of the book, the popularity or obscurity of the book, of course the topic of the book and lastly whether the book may be a collectible or of rare value.
Here are some pictures of just a few of the Vic Booksale’s Volunteers:

Nancy

Gary

Phil

We are all very grateful for the hard work that all of our volunteers put in throughout the entire year, but especially during these last few weeks when the push is on!

Interesting in getting involved right now, while the excitement is mounting? We are encouraging students or recent alumni of Victoria University who can commit themselves to a few hours of volunteer work on days leading up to the sale, to help assist moving boxes of books into Old Vic and setting them up in their categories. For more information on assisting us in the next couple weeks, please contact Sarah Gough at 416­-585-­4471.