A Community Tradition
WHO WE ARE
Westport Library Book Sales are a long-standing community tradition, powered by a dedicated team of over 70 volunteers year-round, and over 200 additional volunteers who support our periodic book sale events.
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Each year, generous patrons donate tens of thousands of used books for resale to benefit the Library. Our volunteers sort, categorize and price these used books for sale. The net proceeds from our volunteer-run book sale events directly support the Westport Library's exceptional programming and operations.
With the continued support of our volunteers, we've expanded the book sales' mission to also include providing meaningful competitive employment and volunteer opportunities for adults with disabilities.
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We launched this expanded mission in Spring 2020, with a pilot employment program.
WHO WE ARE
Expanding our Mission
Expanding Our Services
WHO WE ARE
In January 2021, we opened the Westport Book Shop, downtown Westport's only non- profit used book store, offering high quality used and antiquarian books, vintage vinyl records, CDs, DVDs and audio books. The Book Shop gives us the year--round opportunity both to sell books and to provide employment and training opportunities.
We also now offer used books for sale online through an ebay store.
The unemployment rate for Americans with disabilities is twice as high as that of people with no disabilities. Additionally, after high school, public educational services and social networks disperse for young adults with disabilities. Gainful employment supports independent identity, self-esteem and financial, social and emotional health, while building transferable job and workplace social skills.
WHO WE ARE
Supporting Community Needs
Benefiting the Community
WHO WE ARE
Employment through our book sale operations helps adults with disabilities gain transferable job and workplace social skills. It also creates a sense of pride and satisfaction from supporting the Westport Library, a beloved community institution, and by extension, the entire Westport community. We aspire to have our employees use their experience to seek employment throughout the Westport community, and for our community to be ever more inclusive and respectful of people with differing abilities. We also aspire to become a model for other library book sales, and for employers generally.​