Fort St. John charity to host book market for public library

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Friends of the Fort St. John Public Library will be hosting their annual book market to raise funds for the library. 

According to a Facebook event posted on May 19th, the Spring Book Market has been scheduled for Saturday, May 30th, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at the North Peace Cultural Centre’s concourse, located on 100th Avenue. 

The Friends of the Fort St. John Public Library is a group of volunteers whose main goal is to raise funds for the library, primarily through the sale of used books. 

The society hosts two annual book markets – one in May and one in December – to help with the library’s programming. 

Angie von de Wall, the group’s treasurer and secretary, said all the funds raised during the market will go to the library. 

The group previously hosted its winter book sale on December 6th, 2025, raising $1,150 for the library’s world languages book section and e-book purchases.

“We just pull all the books out into the North Peace Cultural Center’s concourse, we’re going to have a whole bunch of tables set up [with the book],” Wall explained. 

The society hopes to raise $1,000 during the spring market. 

Wall said: “We’ve been helping the children’s library [section] get new books. There’s going to be a book talk section the library is setting up, we’re beefing up the world collections [with] different language books and supporting some of the online book options like Libby.” 

Libby is an app that gives people access to a collection of 90,000 fiction and non-fiction e-books and audiobooks for all ages. 

Attendees can either fill a bag with books for $15 or buy books for $1 each and the market will have something for everybody. 

“We’ve got a lot of puzzles, and those are all selling for $1, a lot of children’s books, sci-fi, and a big non-fiction section,” Wall said. 

“We normally have quite a gathering. The morning is the best time to come because…hearty thrift shoppers, come early and go through the books,” she noted. “In the afternoon, [people] might not find the books they want.” 

Wall believes that everybody is becoming aware that libraries across B.C. are “really” struggling.

She encouraged people to come out, buy reasonably priced books and help keep the library open.