"When you look out there and you see a dumpster with books in it people question why did that have to happen," said Spartanburg County Librarian Todd Stephens.
Stephens understands why a viewer who called News Channel 7 would be upset that the Friends of the Spartanburg County Public Libraries threw away so many books, especially since the non-profit raises about $40,000 each year for the library system through it's book sales.
"Obviously we want to sell books we don't want to have books that we are throwing away," said Stephens.
Stephens said the non-profit agency didn't have a choice when they were forced to move out of their second location by Monday after a new developer took over the building. He said Friends had to move 40,000 books to their space next door.
Stephens said before the move they notified the community of their inventory liquidation "Fiction Fire Sale" through mailings, telling them no reasonable offer would be refused. He said they even tried to sell boxes of books for $3 but didn't have enough takers.
"Was it our intent to throw away these books? Absolutely not," said Stephens. "But at the same time we tried to give them away to the community, we've offered them to other organizations we've tried to have them recycled, we're left with no other choice."
The President of the Friends of the Library, Charlie Kay, told us the hundreds of books we saw in the dumpster aren't the only books they've thrown away. Kay said they've already filled it up once with books that weren't wanted.
Stephens estimated about 15,000 books were thrown away, a decision he says is a shame.
"The books that were thrown away were actually books that were on the shelves for many months if not years where people haven't bought them so the market has determined that those books weren't needed," Stephens said.
And unless the agency can find a bigger and low cost space to store the donated books, they may face having to throw more books away.
The Friends of the Library in Spartanburg expect to have their location at the Cedar Springs Shopping Center open again within a month. It is located at the intersection of Southport Road (Highway 295) and Union Street (Highway 56). It is open most Mondays from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement