ROBERT PIERCE
• Leader & Times
Christmas time is here, and so too is the winter season.
With the weather getting colder, much more of life’s activities will be taking place indoors, and some of the favorite indoor activities of many are reading and watching movies.
This week, the Olive Warner Memorial Library (OWML) in Hooker, Okla., is giving people a chance to buy reading materials, including books, magazines and audiobooks, and DVDs through its annual book sale.
Since coming to the library in July, OWML Librarian Carina Roybal said she and staff have gone through the library’s collection, weeding out older items and those that have not been checked out in some time. Those now have been pulled from shelves and have gone into the book sale.
“We actually have a lot more this time than we have had in previous years,” she said. “We have books, the hardcovers, the paperbacks. We have audiobooks we’ve pulled as well.”
With the costs of audiobooks running around $40 to $50 on online sites such as Amazon, Royball said getting those items can prove expensive. She said there will also be many DVDs for sale.
“We have folks who donate DVDs from time to time,” she said. “We only have a set amount on our shelves, and because of that, sometimes, we already have that DVD, or it may not really fit our library. It’ll go into the book sale – both DVDs and Blu-Rays, I think we even have a couple VHS if anyone has a VHS player still. We’ve got a large assortment of magazines anything from women’s and men’s to a few kids magazines.”
Proceeds from the sale help fund newer books and programs at OWML.
“With 2025 just around the corner, there’s a lot of things we’re wanting to introduce this coming year,” Roybal said.
The price of items at the book sale is extremely low as well, with patrons being able to take home a bag full of items for $2, something Roybal said is unheard of in bookstores.
Roybal said book sales at other area libraries such as one in Guymon, Okla., happen around the same time as Olive Warner’s, and this seems to help with sales at all libraries.
“They do overlap a little bit, and we’re hoping they go there and they come here with the same idea,” she said.
Roybal said past sales have seen little in the way of people browsing stacks and moving merchandise out the door.
“There really wasn’t anything new that was put in throughout the years, but this year with the change in librarian and policy changes, there’s been a lot more going into that book sale and a lot more word of mouth spreading in the area as well,” she said.
Roybal said she is hoping to see many people coming in to not only see what the library has for sale, but also what else OWML has in addition to books.
“We even have a couple of large atlases and maps,” she said.
Roybal said the sale is needed to help get the bulk of the library’s books out the door, to get funds back from the community and get the community into Olive Warner.
“In past years, folks didn’t know our hours, didn’t know when we’re open or didn’t really read that much,” she said. “We’ve noticed the shift of folks coming into the library just out of curiosity who heard there was new stuff going on and wanting to come in and check it out. Word of mouth’s spreading through town and the surrounding communities, and we’ve gotten folks curious. That’s good. Come on in. I’ll show you around. You can look around on your own.”
Roybal said sales such as this week’s start conversations about what is happening at the local library, and like stores with regular sales, this should bring in new patrons on a regular basis.
Roybal described one of the programs she is wanting to start next year.
“In 2025, we’re wanting to start a lending library,” she said. “Essentially, we have tools, devices and instruments the common person wouldn’t necessarily want to buy just to use it once or twice in their life. We have a set of bake pans for folks to borrow and check out with their card here. It has a cupcake pan, a cookie sheet for folks who don’t want to run all the way to Liberal or Guymon to go find them. They can just can come to the library and use them for what they need and bring them back instead of having to go out of their way to purchase them.”
The Olive Warner book sale will run through Saturday during the library’s regular business hours from 5 to 7 p.m. Monday,11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday and 2 to 5 p.m. Saturday.
For more information, visit the Olive Warner Memorial Library Facebook and Instagram pages, call the library at (580) 652-2835, or stop by the library at 111 S. Broadway in Hooker.
Roybal said she is looking forward to seeing what happens as a result of this week’s sale.
“I’m really glad to get some more people in and show them the changes we’ve made and get them excited about coming to their public library,” she said.
