SIKESTON -- The Sikeston Senior High School library and Sikeston Public Library are teaming up to do a little spring cleaning.
And in the process, they're making room for new titles on their respective book shelves and giving local readers a chance to purchase an assortment of publications.
All next week, which is also American Library Week, the two libraries will conduct book sales open to the public.
Sikeston Senior High's sale will be 7:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. April 3-7 in the high school library. Sikeston Public Library's annual sale will be 5-8 p.m. April 6, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. April 7, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. April 8 and 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. April 9. Also on April 9, those who attend the sale can bring a brown grocery bag and fill it up with as many books as they can for $1.
Sikeston Public Library Director Sue Tangeman said she has no problem with the sales being held the same week.
"The high school's dates had been set and so the two happened to overlap," Tangeman said. "It's not going to hurt either one of us, and we need to promote it, I think in the long run, it's a good thing."
The collaboration by the two libraries was partly due to a total renovation of the Sikeston Senior High library beginning at the end of the school year, said Libby Caskey, library media specialist for Sikeston Senior High.
"This was more out of necessity because we have to move everything out for the renovation, and the time frame happened to coincide to the public library's book sale," Caskey explained.
And rather than pack and unpack some of the older and unused books, Caskey thought a book sale would be a great way to update the selection for high school students since all proceeds will be used to purchase new books for the library.
Caskey said she is hoping to reduce the high school's current collection of 17,000 to 20,000 items by 7 percent.
Caskey is still sorting through books, but said fiction, nonfiction and reference books will be among items for sale.
"Our focus is research facility for the high school kids," Caskey said. "We will be more age appropriate here (than the public library), but we do have young adults with adult novels because we also serve the teachers."
Fiction will probably range from fifth grade and up, Caskey said. Nonfiction will include historical, social sciences and technology.
"We have things (for sale) that are copyrighted as far back as the 1950s and items from the 2000s that are duplicate copies," Caskey said.
Caskey is also considering having items two-for-the-price-of one on the Thursday of the sale and fill a bag of books for $1 on that Friday.
"The prime selection will be at the beginning, and the bargain selection toward the end," Caskey said.
Public library workers begin pricing books in early January, Tangeman said.
"We've got quite a few children's books this year and a lot of the more current novels," Tangeman said. "We have several abridged books on tape, the usual genre of cookbooks, encyclopedias, etc."
Each year the book sale typically generates enough revenue -- about $1,500 to $2,000 -- to buy replacement books or new books at the library, Tangeman said.
Caskey, who is on the Sikeston Public Library Board, knew the Sikeston Public Library's annual book sale was approaching when she planned the high school's sale but didn't want to infringe on the public library's annual sale, which has been held the same time for years.
"Sue was very gracious to do this," Caskey said about Tangeman.
Students will be able to attend the high school book sale, and Caskey said she would be happy for the public to come; however, any person other than school personnel should check in at the high school office first.
Helping Caskey with the sale are her library service students.
"The library serves students at the senior high school, and they're doing this as a project," Caskey said.
Tangeman noted the public library will also receive assistance from Sikeston High School students -- the Bleacher Bums. The Bleacher Bums will help retrieve the library's boxes of books from the basement, she said.
"Everybody seems to enjoy it," Tangeman said. "What somebody might not consider to keep in their collections is somebody's treasure. It's a win-win for everybody."