The ‘Big Book Sale’ Lady

Imagine you could write out a check for $600,000 to be used by your favorite charity or social program.

That’s what about 20 years of carrying, sorting, categorizing, researching, pricing and shelving books has equaled for Radnor resident Judy Clifford.

For two decades Clifford has been largely responsible for the twice yearly “big book sale” run by the Friends of the Radnor Memorial Library that benefits the Radnor Memorial Library.

In those 20 years, the Friends’ group — through those sales — has raised about $603,500.

“The sale is a ‘we’, not an 'I',” Clifford said as soon as her interview with Radnor Patch began. She made sure to point out all the help that she has gotten from other volunteers over the years.

But, with Clifford spending an approximate 25 to 30 hours per week year-round on the book sale, no one can deny that she has been its life force.

In fact, the library will soon install a sign to mark the dedication of the DVD/multicultural alcove to rename that space "The Judy Clifford Room."

"Judy's leadership and management of the volunteers who prepare for and run the Friends book sales is an extraordinary gift to the Radnor community,” said Kathy Mulroy, executive director of the Radnor Memorial Library.

Clifford, a native of New York City, said that she has spent about 40 years of her life in basements sorting books — the 1970s for her Vassar alumni group in Washington DC, later for the Good Will in Norfolk, Virginia, and lastly for the Owl Bookshop in Bryn Mawr.

The two things she loves about what she does is working with books and knowing that the money raised is going to help somebody, Clifford said.

In 2011 the Friends group donated $60,000 to operating needs of the library, and that purchased DVDs, books and child and adult programs.

As a special gift, not from the book sale earnings, the group also gave $60,000 for new lighting in the children’s section, lobby and corners, two new computers in the children’s section and reupholstered chairs.

The Sale

Not too much has changed from the book sales today from when they began, Clifford said.

The process of looking items up for pricing certainly has, and the sale is bigger these days. But “We’re still taking bags and boxes of books off the elevator, opening them up and looking to see what they’re like.”

That — at its essence — stays the same.

Clifford said that thrillers and romance are the most popular fiction items today.

Cookbooks are popular sellers, but what the sale gets a lot of — and can not seem to get rid of — are dieting books.

The self-help genre (which Clifford called the “secular religion”) has increased greatly. She noted that a large amount of religion and children’s books also come and go.

The book sale also carries some collector items. Just recently Clifford found a 1939 unused New York Giants, Yankees and Dodgers baseball scorecard. She said she often finds little notes and treasures tucked away in long-ignored volumes.

Occasionally the Friends sale receives somewhat valuable books. A copy of 1999: Victory Without War by President Richard Nixon turned out to be singed by the author (it will be priced $50).

To select sale prices, the Friends find the average sale price of an item and take about one-third of that price for the book sale price. But at the sale the vast majority of hardbacks are $1; paperbacks are 50 cents.

“When I was a Radnor Memorial Library trustee and then board president from 2000-2008, I was at the library a lot.  I saw Judy Clifford at the library almost every time I was there.  She was either receiving books from donors, coordinating the sorting of books or supervising a book sale.  Judy came to Radnor with book sale experience and we are fortunate for that experience,” said Anne Minicozzi.

Want To Help?

Clifford is turning 80 soon and said she continue running the sale as long as she is able.

But she is looking for more volunteers to help her:

•  People willing to do some heavy lifting

•  People knows books

•   Anybody “who is willing to hold a pencil and mark a book,” she said.

The day of the sales, Clifford said she is also looking for volunteers to be cashiers and lift heavy boxes.

To do such work Clifford said it helps to be passionate about books. And it’s “not like a tea party,” she noted.

There is dust, “visual confusion,” and in the library’s dark basement the annoying and ever-present buzz from one of the fluorescent lights.

(“It’s been doing that for years,” she said.)

“Judy and the other volunteers work year 'round to create a "popup" bookstore four times a year where books and other materials for sale are arranged so that buyers can find what they are looking for,” Mulroy said.

Book Sale Information

Paperback sales take place in April and October.

Big Book Sales take place in June and November.

Upcoming Sale Dates

April 28-29 Paperback Sale

June 1-3 Big Book Sale

How to donate to the sale

Up to six boxes or bags can be brought to the library’s main desk during business hours.

On Tuesday and Friday from 1 to 3 p.m. and the first Saturday of the month from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. donations of any size can be delivered by pressing the buzzer on the wall at the door outside the Winsor Room. You can also set up an appointment for delivery.

DVDs, audio books, CDs, VHS and LPs, electronic games, computer software and puzzles and games are accepted.

What can not be sold are magazines, textbooks, encyclopedias and anything that is moldy, smelly, burnt or chewed.

Friend membership levels

Patron: $250 – unlimited books at the Preview sale

Benefactor: $150 – 150 books at the Preview sale

Contributor: $100 – 100 books at the Preview sale

Family: $50 – 50 books at the Preview sale

Individual: $25 – 25 books at the Preview sale

Email friends@radnorlibrary.org