Treasure hunting

Friends of the Thunder Bay Public Library are encouraging people to come out and find a treasure Saturday.

The volunteer group is holding a buck-a-bag book sale at the former Mary J.L. Black Library from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Saturday. The basement of the former library was filled Friday morning with more than 3,000 de-listed books and videos.

Friends former president Nadine Ellement said the material either couldn’t be sold at the volunteer group’s Victoriaville book store, were donated by the public or have been de-listed. The sale will feature everything from fiction to cookbooks.

People can bring a standard grocery bag and fill it up with books for a dollar. Larger bags, like those from Superstore or Metro, are two dollars.

"They don’t look that much larger but when you get them filled you’ll see they’re almost double sized," Ellement said.

While fabric bags can be filled for three dollars, most people end up donating more money.

"It’s fantastic because they appreciate what we’re doing," she said.

Books not sold will be shipped to an online book store. The friends receive a small percentage of books sold there.

"We try everything we can not to send books to the dump,’ Ellement said.

The buck-a-bag sale is intended to clean up inventory and raise funds for the Friends of the Thunder Bay Public Library. Every year they receive a wish-list from libraries and try to fundraise, up to $40,000, to provide new equipment or special books.