The Friends of the Tompkins County Library hold an annual* book sale, the proceeds of which go to the support of the library. We typically get in close to a half a million books that have to be divided among the large categories (Education, Drama, Sociology {three sub-categories}, Science {also three subcategories}, Politics and Government, etc.) This process is called rough sorting and is a real gas. Once the books have been rough sorted, the fine sorters for each category sort them in finer detail.

*Originally just one sale in the Fall, later a Spring paperback sale was instituted; it is now threatening to become as major as the Fall Sale.