Hundreds of thousands of people across Colorado and surrounding states gathered for the Arapahoe Libraries Used Book Sale at Koelbel Library.  

Volunteer Coordinator Nicole Dumville, who has been with the library for over four years, said a record number of people attended the first night of the sale Sept. 13. 

“It’s going really great. We kicked off with our Friends only preview night which is usually a good crowd but (Wednesday) was the biggest we’ve seen in years,” Dumville said.  

She said the sale was shut down during the pandemic but over the last two years, more and more people have returned for the sale.  

“I feel like as we get farther away from 2020 the numbers have been increasing,” she said. “That’s really great to see because there’s such feel-good events and we have volunteers that put so much work into everything.”  

Dumville said there are around 40,000 books hand-selected by 30 core volunteers and staff who assist with the used book sale.  

“The volunteers go through every single book. They have guidelines that they meticulously work on every year,” she said. 

All the books are donated and any books the library doesn’t keep or are left over from the sale go to a local organization called Dream Books.  

“We’ve been partnering with them since October 2021 and they actually come and pick up the books and their goal is to keep them out of landfills which is great for us as well because we know we want the books to have a long life,” Dumville said. 

Dumville said she loves the used book sale for a number of reasons.  

“I love seeing how much people still love books. I love seeing the work of our volunteers pay off and seeing their excitement to have the crowds,” she said. 

Additionally, Dumville loves that all the proceeds from the sale go back into the library.  

She said the sale was originally started 25 years ago to help fund the construction of the Koelbel location which hosts the sale.  

“There’s quite a history here and I want to give a shout-out to our longtime volunteer Thersa Dando,” Dumville said. “She has been doing this the whole time that book sales have existed. She coordinates all the books that come up and are selected for the sale. She’s just a great leader here.”  

The last day of the sale on Sunday, Sept. 17, is Bag Day in which the library provides the bag, and patrons fill it up for $10. 

 Koelbel Library is located at 5955 S. Holly Street in Centennial. For more information, visit arapahoelibraries.org or call 303-542-7279.