Nearly 10,000 volumes will available for purchase at the “annual library book sale”:http://illinois.edu/calendar/detail/7?eventId=9225733&calMin=201110&cal=20111026&skinId=1 on Thursday.

From 9 am to 4 pm in the Marshall Gallery of the Main Library, shoppers will have the opportunity to look at books, prints and audiovisual materials the University’s library system has no need for.

The annual sale takes in a little less than $10,000 each year, said library specialist Nicholas Hagen. The proceeds are used to support the library system’s ever-growing collection. The University’s library system has the fifth-largest collection in the nation, and the second-largest academic library, second to Harvard University, according to the “American Library Association”:http://www.ala.org/ala/professionalresources/libfactsheets/alalibraryfactsheet22.cfm.

Hagen said many of the volumes sold come from donated estates, and often are duplicates of existing materials in the collection. He encouraged University and community members alike to explore the sale.

“Come and plan to take some time looking through stuff,” Hagen said. “It can be fun to see what’s around.”

Starting at 3 p.m. in the last hour of the sale, materials will be sold by the bagful at $3 a piece.