On September 13 and 14, we had our NUS Libraries Fundraising Book & Garage Sale 2012. As always, this event was held in conjunction with the NUS Libraries E-Resource Discovery Day (ERDD).
This year, we started the collection period in late April, hoping that students and staff will donate their books before the school vacation. Our book donation boxes were dressed in a prominent red and white, and we put up posters with a heartfelt plea for books. This year, we received a steady stream of books right up to the week of ERDD itself, and our collection was much larger than last year’s. We want to specially thank the two families which each contributed several hundreds and thousands of books. We also want to thank the Office of Housing Services which installed book collection points at the various hostels.
For the garage sale, we collected items mainly from our own staff, and received some unusual items as well as a healthy number of CDs, VCDs and DVDs. Given the staggering amount of books and garage sale items, we had to do a lot more pricing and sorting. With previous years’ experiences in mind, we meticulously categorised the books and stored them in batches. Besides having a preview album on Facebook, we also had our very own model to showcase some clothing from the Garage Sale.
On the actual days of the fundraising sale, many students and staff were surprised to find such good books and items at attractive prices. We extended our opening hours to give everybody more time to shop. Our flash sale at the end of the second day was very successful, as we reduced prices in order to sell more items. We gave a 20% discount off the garage sale items and priced the books at five for $2! Many expressed disbelief and immediately called their friends to come down to buy more.
This year, our total collection for both the book and garage sale was $15,000, compared to the $11,000.30 collected last year. On 26 September, NUS Libraries handed over a cheque of $15,000 to the Deputy President (Administration), Mr. Joseph P Mullinix.
The cheque went to the Annual NUS Giving Bursary Fund, which supports NUS students with financial needs. So, it was all for a very worthy cause! We’ll like to say a huge “Thank you” to all who donated their books and items, and those who came and bought, as well as all the library staff who contributed their time and energy! We hope you had good memories of the event and are enjoying your treasured finds!
Umarani Jayapal
on behalf of the ERDD2012 team
