Joe Goecke had been retired from his job as an executive at Valmont Industries for a couple years when his wife, Polly, volunteered him for a position with the Friends of Omaha Public Library, opens a new window. Polly was already a Friends volunteer, and when the group decided to explore the idea of adding Internet book sales to their traditional book sales, she felt that Joe was the right man for the job. Joe has been working on the project for over 10 years.
“Handling books for the online sales is like a slot machine,” said Goecke. “You never know what you are going to get until you pull the lever.”
Books with potential for a higher sale price than those sold during the regular book sales are filtered by book sale volunteers and passed along to Goecke and his team for online listing.
Goecke has been surprised at how much some of the titles have fetched. “Our biggest sale was for $2,800. It was a book of architectural drawings of English manor houses. A book store in London purchased the book, and took it apart to frame its pages in their shop.”
Whatever people’s reasons are for wanting certain niche titles, Goecke is happy to help and pleased to make a contribution of his time to benefit the Omaha Public Library system.
“Libraries are vital. Walk around and see what is going on and who is using them. People need libraries,” Goecke said.
We agree! Thank you, Joe, for your volunteer service.
If you or someone you know is interested in volunteering at OPL, visit your neighborhood branch or omahalibrary.org/volunteer, opens a new window for an application and more information.
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