One of the city’s best-attended book events kicks off Thursday.

That’s when Friends of the Lawrence Public Library will start the group’s annual spring used-book sale with a members-only night.

The sale will then be open to the public from Friday through April 9, with the remainder of unsold books given away during the last two days of the event.

The sale, housed in a tent outside the library at Seventh and Kentucky streets, traditionally draws large crowds.

“We have lines going down the block in every direction,” said Leslie O’Neil, Friends coordinator. “People look forward to it. They bring boxes and bags and they get their reading materials for the year with us.

“It’s quite an event.”

Robert Taylor, Lawrence, puts out boxes of mystery books in preparation for the Friends of the Lawrence Public Library spring book sale, which kicks off this week. Taylor and other volunteers were working at the library and in the tents behind the library Tuesday setting up for the sale, which begins Thursday night for members of the Friends of the Library and opens to the public at 10 a.m. Friday.

Combined with the fall book sale, there are more than 100,000 books and other items to choose from each year, with no carryover from the previous sale. Included are scholarly, children’s and popular books, plus musical compact discs and records.

Money from the spring and fall sales is used to provide more than $35,000 to a variety of library programs, including the children’s and young adults’ summer reading programs, subscriptions for downloading audio books online, and purchases of books, DVDs and other materials for the library, O’Neil said.

Volunteers help Friends of the Library as well as library staff with the book sale.