The Abridged version:
- The Book Den sells donated books and media to support the Sacramento Public Library. It consists of a small store and warehouse and is open Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
- Items in the warehouse sell for $2 or less.
- Over 100 active volunteers help run the Book Den. They sort through donations, manage the online store and run the cash register.
On a recent Wednesday morning, cars pulled in and out of the back of a Sacramento warehouse, leaving behind boxes of donations for volunteers to sort through. The warehouse, located just off Power Inn Road in Sacramento, is known as the Book Den and is run by the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.
When visitors enter the Book Den from the front, they will find a small bookstore. But in the back, they will stumble upon a warehouse where countless used books and other media fill the shelves.
At any given time, the Book Den is home to 80,000 to 100,000 items ranging from books to DVDs and even puzzles.
Number of young visitors increasing
“We’re one of the best-kept secrets in Sacramento for book shopping and now, we’re getting to be known,” said Pam Whiteley, manager of the Book Den.
Whiteley says recent social media coverage by customers of the Book Den has increased the number of younger visitors in their 20s and 30s. Before that, the warehouse was mainly frequented by an older crowd.
“Somebody who walks in here for the first time … it’s a jaw dropping experience to see all those books. When we tell them everything in the warehouse side here is $2 or under, they’re just amazed,” said Joanne Murphy, a longtime volunteer who is an antiquarian and ephemera specialist.
“It’s like a big treasure hunt,” she said.
Sacramento resident Baldomero “Baldo” Nava, a book reseller and collector, has been coming to the Book Den for five years. He knows the warehouse so well that he occasionally helps customers who are looking for certain items or sections.
“We have customers that come in, and I think they just keep coming back, because they enjoy standing up there and talking to people,” Whiteley said. “You’ll see the customers in the back talking to each other about books and stuff. It’s kind of like a community center.”
Accessible knowledge
Whiteley says their main mission is to support the Sacramento Public Library and ensure everyone has access to books. Proceeds from the Book Den help fund library programs.
“Books are really expensive,” Whiteley said. “You go to the big book booksellers and a lot of people just can’t do it. Reading is just something that should be available. Our prices are so low. We get a lot of people that come in and they couldn’t afford books otherwise.”
All items in the warehouse are under $2, and some are even free — like coffee table books, VHS tapes, cassettes and magazines. Those who have a membership with the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library receive an extra 30% off their purchases. The Book Den also hosts several warehouse sales annually where customers pay only $6 for every grocery-sized bag they fill with books and other media.
Also on eBay and Amazon
Prices are not the only thing that makes the Book Den a place of accessibility. Whiteley and Murphy say they do not censor books, and they oppose book bans.
“It just provides some place for people to come and get books and maybe find something that they’ve never read before,” Whiteley said. “We have no catalogs, because they come and go.”
“Somebody might have an idea or might be able to check a shelf, but for the most part you come in, you look — if you find it, great,” Murphy said. “If not, maybe you find eight others you want.”
Customers can also find the Book Den on eBay and Amazon, where it sells higher-value books and sets. Locals can pick up their online purchases in person.
Discovering treasures
Murphy takes care of items that volunteers are unsure where to place. She has volunteered with the Book Den since they opened the warehouse and oversees its biannual Antiquarian and Ephemera Sale. There, customers will find rare books, paper ephemera, art and military memorabilia. Murphy says she once found a dried dead lizard that fell out of a book. She put it in a small container and sold it for $2. A copy of “Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained” by John Milton with exquisite binding sold for $800.
“We consigned a document from about the 1600s to sell because of its value and because it needed a bigger audience,” Murphy said. “It was sold to an institution in the Midwest.
“These are things that have been donated to us. It’s not like we went out looking for them, but people just either they don’t know what they have or they just don’t see the value in books. They just need to clear out and get out. They dump everything into a box.”
The Antiquarian and Ephemera Sale can bring in $8,000 to $11,000 a day for the Friends of the Sacramento Public Library.
Volunteers keep the place running
The Book Den has over 100 active volunteers who receive donations, sort items, manage the online store and run the cash register. Many volunteers are sorters who place the items into different categories. What’s known as “first sorters” do the initial round of organizing — placing items in labeled sections on shelves in the volunteers’ workspace. The “second sorters” bring the items out into the warehouse, placing them in their appropriate sections.
Many volunteers are retired. Some volunteer with their kids. Others come to fulfill community service hours.
“We have several doctors, dentists, engineers, lots of librarians and teachers,” Whiteley said.
Diane Sabo is the Book Den’s volunteer coordinator and a former special education teacher. Second sorter Thomas Hedges is a public history master’s student at Sacramento State who started volunteering a year ago. First sorter Kevin Meehan has been with the Book Den for three years — first volunteering with his daughter who needed community service hours.
“The place runs so well with the volunteers,” Whiteley said. “It’s the easiest job in the world to be a manager here, because I say that I just have to pay the bills and bring the doughnuts. Everybody else is so organized, and they come up with the best ideas to streamline. To try something different. It’s non-stressful, you know. It’s just a great place to come and talk to people and be around other people that like books.”
“Volunteers who work three hours can take a couple of warehouse books home for free. A lot of them never take a single book home. They pay for every one. But some, if you’re low income, and you have time to volunteer, you get books,” Murphy said.
The Book Den is at 8250 Belvedere Ave. in Sacramento. It is open for shopping from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.
Donations are accepted from 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Shelley Ho is a producer with PBS KVIE and a visual journalist with Abridged.