DATE: Thursday, October 23, 1997            TAG: 9710230490

SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B2   EDITION: FINAL 

TYPE: Column 

SOURCE: Guy Friddell 

                                            LENGTH:   51 lines

40,000 BOOKS TO GREET BARGAIN-HUNTERS AT CHRYSLER MUSEUM

Volunteers have amassed upward of 40,000 books for sale at near-rock-bottom prices from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Nov. 1 in Norfolk at the Chrysler Museum.

Proceeds from the sale will help benefit the museum's Jean Outland Chrysler Library.

``The response from throughout Hampton Roads has been magnificent,'' said Jean Powell, a Friends of the Library board member who is in charge of the sale.

Goodwill Industries of Hampton Roads, which has its own book boutique, nevertheless contributed 20,000 books and took care of their transportation to the YWCA in Norfolk. There, throughout the summer, they were sorted, classified and priced under the direction of volunteer Max Sloop.

A woman from California, who had come to Virginia Beach for the settlement of a family estate, heard of the sale and donated its library to the museum.

Some 4,000 books donated by alumnae of Brandeis University were directed by Rena Rogoff to the museum. Helen Gifford, a former board member of the Friends of the Library, had the books moved to the YWCA.

Men and women from the Navy's submarine tender Emory S. Land fetched books from dozens of donors who couldn't bring them to the museum. The day before the sale, the ship's personnel will shift to the museum the voluminous load of books stored at the YWCA. ``They contributed mightily to the sale's success,'' said Steve Eichner, the library manager.

Dail's will donate lunch to the day's volunteers.

Some 200 volunteers will work at setting up and selling the books at the sale.

``Many of the books, both hardback and paperback, are new and they are of all description,'' Powell said. ``Huber Court will be packed to the arches with books and numerous records.''

Several long rows of belt-high tables will extend the length of the court. Dozens of customers can browse leisurely under the court's lofty roofwide skylight.

The vast bulk of hardback books will be sold at 50 cents apiece. The top price for paperback books is 25 cents a copy. A few of the hardback copies, mainly volumes of artwork sized for coffee tables, will be set aside at prices ranging up to $5 each.

Deputy museum director Catherine Jordan-Wass said the sale would heighten the public's awareness of the library.

To a suggestion that the museum might easily have raised the price of the hardbacks to a dollar, librarian Eichner replied that books and art works are a natural fit for the community to enjoy.

``The sale will introduce many to the museum and the library and entice them to return to explore the Chrysler and its library,'' he said.

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