Cobb County Public Library’s popular annual Fall Book Sale begins this weekend, October 4-6, 2024.  All proceeds from the sale go directly to buying more items for the system’s 15 branches and bookmobile.

Materials for sale include books, DVDs, books on CD and audiocassettes, magazines, and puzzles. 

The prices range from 10 cents to $4.00. Visit this link to view the price list.

The sale will be at the Cobb Civic Center, 548 South Marietta Pkwy SE, Marietta, GA 30060. It will be open Friday and Saturday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. 

Acceptable forms of payment are debit, credit (Visa and Mastercard only), cash, and checks.

The news release for the sale included the following information:

On Friday until 1 pm electronic (scanning) devices are not permitted. While we hope you will buy lots of materials, we are only able to sell up to 2 boxes of items at a time on Friday until 1 pm. Please plan to pay and take items to your vehicle before coming in to shop some more.

On Sunday we will be working to sell out the Civic Center so please come to buy, buy, buy!

Sunday is BYOB (Bring Your Own Box) Day: fill any size box (you can bodily get back to your car) for a flat rate — $10 upper level only; $20 lower level only; $20 mixed.

About the Cobb County Public Library

According to the Cobb County Public Library website:

Cobb County Public Library is a 15-branch system headquartered in Marietta, Georgia, where its staff members serve a diverse population of over 750,000 people. Cobb is one of Georgia’s fastest-growing counties, and Cobb County Public Library is dedicated to being a resource center in the community by providing equal access to information, materials, and services.

History of Cobb’s library system

The first public library in Cobb County was opened in the home of Sarah Freeman Clarke in Marietta. Clarke, whose family was from Massachusetts, was an advocate for free lending libraries and began lending books from her own collection informally from her house before it became obvious there needed to be a better-organized library system.

According to The First Hundred Years, A Short History of Cobb County in Georgia, by Sarah Blackwell Gober Temple, the library opened in 1882, was at Clarke’s residence on Whitlock Avenue, and was named the Franklin Library.

The first standalone library building opened on Church Street near the home of William Root in October 1893 and was named the Sarah Freeman Clarke Library.

Subsequently, libraries were opened in Acworth and Austell. In 1959, the city of Marietta and several other Cobb County libraries combined to form a countywide system that began the Cobb County Public Library as we know it today.

You can read more about the history of the Cobb County Public Library by following this link.