A man lugged two bags full of books to drop to the donation box outside. Inside, a woman snapped up marked-down novels while a father and his two kids were excitedly picking out a few reads.
These are typical scenes at Bookends South, a small used bookstore tucked in a corner of the Toronto Reference Library. Entirely volunteer-run, Bookends has quietly served readers and raised funds for public library programs for 25 years.
Operated by the registered charity Friends of the Toronto Public Library South Chapter, the store offers gently used books, CDs, DVDs, and vinyl for as little as 25 cents. And everything — from pricing books to manning the cash box — is powered by volunteers like Frank Velikonja, who’s been with Bookends for 20 years.
When Velikonja arrives for his nine-hour shift, he restocks shelves, sorts through donations, and handles managerial tasks like updating schedules and supporting other volunteers. As the longest-serving volunteer at Bookends South, he’s also served as president of the Friends of the Toronto Public Library for several years.
“It’s always been this sense of love of operating a bookstore, of providing quality materials and being around other people who love books,” Velikonja, 64, said, about his decades of volunteering. “The camaraderie is extraordinary, and it’s an especially great and wonderful environment.”
Ken Popert, a retired volunteer, discovered Bookends after browsing the Toronto Public Library website. Now, he volunteers one shift per week, sorting through thousands of donated items the store receives from the public, withdrawn books from the library, and even publishers with overstock. Popert inspects the books’ condition, organizes them by subject, and gets them ready for the shelves. Most books are priced at $1, but rare and limited-edition titles are marked with blue dot stickers and priced higher.
Popert finds his work particularly interesting, noting that sorting books offers “a window into the lives of strangers” — such as when he finds money used as bookmarks, which he says happens often.
For particularly rare finds, Bookends hosts a major treasure sale every two years at the library’s Beeton Hall. Items are sold for just 25 per cent of their market value, raising money for the organization.
The funds raised through Bookends help support various Toronto Public Library programs, including literacy and literary programs at the Toronto Reference Library, and fully funding the Elementary School Outreach Program for children.
Volunteer Amanda Cheung explained that the store is always looking for new volunteers. While volunteers assist with customer service and inventory management, there is an especially high need for help with sorting donations and pricing books before they make it to the shelves. Volunteers are also needed to organize curated book sales for special events at the library, as well as to fill managerial and leadership roles.
Antoinette Fracassi, who has been volunteering at Bookends for three years, works one shift every two weeks. Her tasks include operating the cash register, tidying shelves, assisting customers, and checking out purchases. She first discovered the store while wandering through the library, and with 15 years of experience working in a bookstore, she felt right at home. Now retired and living nearby, Fracassi also volunteers at the University of Toronto’s John M. Kelly Library, making Bookends a perfect fit.
Fracassi has had many memorable moments volunteering, including a couple who visited the store to purchase “a few hundred dollars worth of books” for a charity they worked with in Jamaica. They were donating the books to a resource centre there.
Volunteering, she says, “keeps you going.”
“You get this richness when you volunteer because of the people that you meet and the people that you talk to. And it’s beautiful, the stories that you hear — it tells you about another life that you’ve not lived.”
