The friends of the Shepherdstown Library will continue in their effort to raise funds to benefit library programs with their annual book sale this weekend.

The sale will begin with a wine and cheese reception at the War Memorial Building from 6:30 to 8 p.m tonight, May 6. Admission to the reception is $10 per person. The sale will continue Saturday and Sunday with no cost for entrance.

According to Fran Brolle, a local resident and volunteer, FOSL is a volunteer organization that supports special needs and requests from the Shepherdstown Public Library and encourages reading.

Brolle, who has volunteered at the book sale for the past three years, said FOSL has helped the library in the past by funding children’s events and purchasing learning software for the library’s public-use computers.

Brolle said proceeds from last year’s book sale were ” record breaking.” The sale earned a little more than $5,000.

Though Brolle hopes to do as well this year, she said she couldn’t speculate as to what this sale will earn.

More than 50 volunteers will help out during the three-day event, including a handful of volunteers from a company called ProQuest that supplies research databases for libraries.

“It’s very much a community effort,” Brolle said.

Rachel Hally, a Shepherdstown resident and member of the FOSL board, acted as chair of FOSL’s volunteer committee.

Hally is also a librarian for ProQuest and expressed her excitement for this year’s sale.

“Volunteers from ProQuest have two days a year to do volunteer projects, and we had so much fun last year we decided to come back,” she said.

Brolle said the sale will include thousands of books. The cost for hardcover and soft cover books is $2 and the cost for paperbacks is 50 cents. The sale will include books in multiple categories including fiction and non-fiction, as well as children’s books.

All books that go unsold will be donated to Wonderbooks in Frederick

The sale will also include some books on tape and VHS and DVD movies. Brolle expressed gratitude for all who helped make the book sale possible including Shepherdstown Storage and Jefferson Distributors, who donated beer for the reception and the Shepherdstown Men’s Club.

“It was nice of the Men’s Club to let us use the building,” Brolle said.

The sale will be held at the War Memorial Building, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday and 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday. Surveys about the new library project will be avaialable at the book sale. Feedback is being collected via survey until May 9.