NYC Municipal Library

New Yorkers Love Books!

Book Sale in the Atrium at 31 Chambers Street, November 7, 2025.

Staff at the Municipal Archives and Library weeded surplus books from our collections for the purpose of holding a two-day book sale of items that might be of interest to the general public.

The sale was scheduled for two days, Friday, November 7, and Saturday, November 8.  Because of the overwhelming response by New Yorkers, almost everything was sold on Friday and the Saturday sale is cancelled.

The turnout was unprecedented. Our prior sale of similar deaccessioned books in 2016 had much lower participation. Today, by contrast, people were lined up by 9:00 a.m. to get in. Twice, admission had to be paused because the number of people in the lobby was close to the limit under the fire / safety rules.

New Yorkers love books and bargains! Both of which they got today.

If you missed the sale and are interested in an online auction of exceptional items, please check out our online auction https://on.nyc.gov/auction where twelve volumes are on the auction block until Friday November 14. In addition, we still have a limited number of original redeemed vintage bonds and stock certificates dating from the 1920s to the 1980s offered for sale on our support page: https://www.archives.nyc/support

Book Sale in the Atrium at 31 Chambers Street, November 7, 2025.