One of the highlights of Park City’s annual Miners Day celebration (see page A-1) is the Friends of the Park City Library used book sale.

This year’s sale will take place on Sunday, September 1, and Monday, September 2. Members of the Friends of the Park City Library, an organization that raises money to supplement the library’s annual budget, will be granted access for a two-hour preview at 8 a.m. Sunday before doors open to the public from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Memberships can be purchased at the door or in advance at friends-of-the-park-city-library.square.site.

The sale will continue to the public on Monday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. and will include a tote bag happy hour from 2 to 4 p.m., where shoppers can fill a provided bag for $15, said Rachel Sahlman, board member of the Friends of the Park City Library.

“All adult paperbacks are $2 and adult hardcovers are $3,” she said. “And that includes coffee table books and art books.”

The sale also includes $1 children’s books that are put together with puzzles, said Cathy Lanigan, co-president of the Friends of the Park City Library.

“These are available in room 301, while the paperbacks and hardbacks are in the common room,” she said. “So when you go up the stairs, you’ll come to the children’s section on the right and the common room on the left.”

Payment options include cash and Venmo; credit cards are accepted for purchases over $10.

Although the rest of the library except the third floor will be closed during those days, Lucky Ones Coffee will be open in the lobby, Sahlman said.

“They just renovated their premises,” she said.

All of the books for sale were donated by the public, according to Lanigan.

“This sale will clear out all of our storage space,” she said. “So after this sale, we will start raising money for our next sale with an empty storage space.”

Sahlman is grateful for the donations, which can sometimes be overwhelming.

“It’s like the chocolate factory episode in ‘I Love Lucy,’ only it’s books and not chocolate,” she said, laughing. “We move a load of books, and then we have another stack. It just keeps coming.”

According to Sahlman, the books are sorted into 20 to 25 different categories.

“The categories will include cookbooks, hobbies or sports, but it will be like a little journey of discovery,” she said. “The categories are broad enough for people to explore, and in the past we’ve had people spend a long time wandering through the sections and finding things they didn’t know they were looking for.”

The paperback will also be arranged alphabetically by author, Sahlman said.

“It’s amazing how many people come in looking for specific authors,” she said.

The Miners Day used book sale and the Friends of the Park City Library’s Fourth of July used book sale benefit the Friends of the Park City Library’s programs, Lanigan said.

“(Our organization) wants to help the library engage the general public,” she said. “That includes things like live music on the patio to more comprehensive programs like One Book, One Community, which is partially funded by the Park City Library.”

The goal is not only to provide the programming, but also to use those programs to engage the community in the library, Lanigan said.

“From our perspective, this book flea market is another program,” she said. “It brings together people who love to read, people who love the library, or people who don’t know what the library has to offer.”

According to Lanigan, the money raised from the sale will also support the library’s pilot programs, such as mindfulness courses.

“When these programs are successful, they end up in the library’s annual budget,” she said. “We also use the money to train our librarians and often help them attend professional training events and conferences.”

The used book sale on Miners’ Day has attracted customers over the years, Lanigan said.

“We identify them as potential volunteers and look for ways to get them more involved and support the library,” she said. “We’re always looking for volunteers because many hands make a job easier. And we rely on community members’ help at events like this book sale.”

Sometimes those volunteers end up on the board of the Friends of the Park City Library, Sahlman said.

“There will be board members who want to volunteer to help with our book sale, so if anyone has questions, there are always people there to answer them and talk to people about options,” she said.

Sale of used books for Miners’ Day

• When: 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Sunday, September 1, and 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., Monday, September 2
• Where: Park City Library, 1255 Park Ave.
• Website: parkcitylibrary.org