I came here to see if anyone had any ideas on this also. My idea was to do it at a PTO meeting but I would love to have adult books too and I'm wondering if there is any problem with this? I have a few bags of books laying around taking up space and my kids outgrow their books, or get tired of the same ones.
I also would not do this during a book fair it would obviously take away from sales.
I guess I should clairify my idea on having a book exchange. I was thinking of having it during the RIF reading program ( Jan or Feb). Our PTO has a good source of income from other events, so I thought it would be nice to have an event that would not cost anything. Sometimes it seems like us parents get nickled and dimed to death! Also some of our families are low income, so I thought recycling no longer wanted books among our school community would be a good idea.
I was looking for practical ideas on the "nuts and bolts" of organizing and running the event. I've tried surfing the internet for ideas. There isn't much out there. Any help would be appreciated.
I do our book fair and would never allow a book exchange during book fair week. It would cut down on profits because people wouldn't have to buy new books, they could just exchange for them. It wouldn't matter whether they were kids or adult books, it's just a psychological thing.
We don't have a book exchange at our school, but we do a used book sale during our Halloween Carnival and during our spring event. We ask people to donate all their old books then we sell them for 50 cents or a dollar. We make a lot of money this way.
I have to agree with Backhoed. A free book exchange during bookfair is bound to reduce book sales. If it were our school, we'd plan it at another time.
Why would I be working against my profit? At the book fair, we only sell children's books and a handful of adult material. If we ask parents to bring in their gently used books to exchange for another book, that won't be interfering with the fair. At least I don't think it would.
I think having a book exchange is a great idea, but during your bookfair? I think that is not a great idea....I would do it at another time. You will be working against your profit if you do that...