Public Libraries Trading Quaintness For Cash

theodp writes "To help nourish lean budgets, public libraries are increasingly eyeing the e-commerce used-book market as an alternative to the long-standing community tradition of the local book sale. Abebooks reports a tenfold surge in public library clients over the last three years. The payoff can be handsome. One library group boasts of getting $250 for a few boxes of 'miserable, horrible stuff' and another $110 from a World War II vet for a book about his Army regiment. A public library in Texas auctioned 300 items on eBay to help plug a budget hole. And a Seattle suburb moved its annual library sale of some 80,000 books to Amazon, citing expediency and extra cash as motivators."

Comments

sounds like a good idea

[BattleTroll]

This sounds like a good idea to me. Why not put the books out there where supply and demand takes hold? If they can get more money by selling to broader audience, more power to them.

Re:sounds like a good idea

[EnderWiggnz]

oh, i'd like to let you say that in a room full of real-live educated librarians. they'd tear you an intellectual asshole.

seriously - these people went into tending to books because they love knowledge. they are incredibly well educated, well read, and voracious supporters of free speech and liberty.

obviously you dont know any librarians.

Funding

[Medieval]

Maybe if we gave the libraries more actual funding they wouldn't need to turn to good old-fashioned capitalism to raise the funds they need to stay current.

Re:Funding

[JonTurner]

>>Maybe if we gave the libraries more actual funding...

<sarcasm> Of course! Why hold a government library to the unrealistic standards of being financially responsible when we can just force the taxpayers to cough up some more money to cover their inefficiencies? </sarcasm>

>>...they wouldn't need to turn to good old-fashioned capitalism to raise the funds they need to stay current.

You say that as if it's a dirty word. What's wrong with capitalism? Under it, scarcity encourages innovation of exactly the sort we're seeing here: rather than dumping these used books in the landfill or selling them for pennies each they're being sold to willing buyers, yielding a much higher return to the library which is free to pour that money back into it's operations to either
1) reduce operating expenses, lessening it's burden on the taxpayer, or
2) EXPAND operations at the same cost to the taxpayer.

I don't see the problem here.

Good for them

[exhilaration]

I've been to plenty of local library sales and not only do most people simply ignore them, but less 10% of the books are sold.

I don't see any reason for libraries to go through the enormous trouble of organizing a local sale just to keep a handful of patrons happy. If they can get rid of them online, more power to them.

brilliant

[moquist]

This sounds like a brilliant idea to me. I have a friend who theorizes that the function of technology is always to "remove the middle" somehow, and it's easy to see how the Internet "removes the middle" of the commerce chain, by more directly linking buyers and sellers.

Sure, there may be a loss of quaintness, but if the gain is that more people are getting books they want at prices they like, and libraries are getting more money to get new materials, who's really loosing out?

I've got a wheelbarrow-full of musty old books I bought at a library sale, if anybody's bidding...

XHAKTLY!

[MikeCapone]

And it's a good thing for us book lovers too.

More used books available online, but especially more OUT OF PRINT used books...

And I'll be sad to see them go...

[pq]

Online sales are great - the convenience of finding exactly what I'm looking for on Amazon or Alibris (or whatever else floats your boat) is hard to beat. And used books are logical online: ever-lower transaction costs, an ever-more frictionless exchange of one man's mildewy junk for another man's prized first edition.

But books ... there's a certain romance to browsing piles and piles of old books, never knowing what gem you'll find in the next shoebox. I miss the huge "Friends of the Library" booksales in Ithaca (at one time, the largest used book sale in North America): for ten bucks, you could stagger out with shopping bags full of stuff.

Now, living in New Mexico in the middle of nowhere, I do appreciate Amazon. And I do understand that public libraries need to make a buck, because rich people need their tax breaks more than they need a thriving community around them. But I'll be sad to see the used book sales go.

Selling quaint is not necessarily a bad thing.

[supabeast!]

One thing to keep in mind about those quaint old books in libraries is that many of them are older reference books full of incorrect or nearly-useless information. Much of this stuff is just wasting shelf space and rotting away, and the books would be better off in a private collection or a museum. The way I see it, better the library sell off old encyclopedias full of outdated geopolictical and scientic information and buy current, useful books, than for a kid researching data-storage technology to go to the library and not be able to find a book on the subject among endless shelves of twentieth-century remnants.

Probably a good thing

[Anonymous Coward]

There is very good justification to provide public libraries with public funds paid for from general government revenue-- that is, for the population as a whole to support public libraries.

There exist two reasons for this: academic and economic. I consider increasing the level of education of the population (that part of the population that uses public libraries at least) to be a justification for government spending.

However, some people do not agree with a purely educational justification. The second justification is economic. Public libraries are a comparatively cheap way to increase the skills people, which makes them more valuable to a knowledge economy.

Death of Bargains

[Anonymous Coward]

Ebay ended real garage sale bargains.... and now if libraries start posting online it will be the end of the $0.50 hardback bargain book.

My mom bought our first encyclopedia from a local library for $15. Not that encylopedia's will be sold online or are even useful nowadays, but you get the point.

On the other hand, its great for the Library system I guess, as public funds are obviously lacking (that same local library was shut down less than 10 months ago).

But on the other other hand, why weren't these invaluable books (such as the WWII diary) kept in the library itself and made available to the public??? I never donate books to the library, because public libraries (at least the ones i've been to) have a policy of not incorporating donated books into their collections.

My family donated a set of classic childrens novels to the local library (which we knew they did not currently have available for public borrowing) thinking we would be helping the community's youth, but instead we found our donated books on the book sale shelves being sold for $0.25 and $0.50 a piece. We ended up buying all of the books that were left, back, and never donated books again.

Re:Death of Bargains

[makohund]

Libraries generally accept most donations, including books of course. But part of the libraries job is to maintain a good collection... often within limited space. They can't put every donated book on the shelf, and one shouldn't assume that they will. Remember, the reason these book sales exist is to weed the collection. A sometimes difficult task (most librarians would love to keep most everything if they could) that needs to be done.

If possible, donated books will be looked over, the same way. But sometimes they might not be. There might be so many that they don't have time to go over them and they need the space back. (We've had enormous amounts of techserv space taken up by donation that we really needed to move, and book sales can do that.) If they can go through them, they'll pick out what they think they really need. They might find some books they don't have already that they wish to add, some they'd like additional copies of (usually due to high demand and long hold queues), or maybe replace an existing item if there is a donated copy is in better condition.

Now, if you are specifically donating books because you feel they should be added to the collection, you need to talk to the librarian in charge of that part of the collection first. (In your example, the "Children's Librarian" or "Children's Collection Developer" is who you need.) Tell them that you have some books to donate because you think it will be a valuable addition to their collection, and it is something you feel is missing.

If they agree with you (or they change their mind after talking with you) they'll happily accept the donation, send them to get cataloged/prepped, and put them out. (You might have saved them the trouble of sorting through piles of other junk to find them.)

If not, then you know if you donate it it will probably be sold. So you can choose to keep it if you prefer.

Hope that helps, and sorry to hear about your books taking a route you might not have expected. I'm sure it happens a lot.

If you talk to the librarians, you stand a much better chance at getting them in the collection. You might even get a little "donated by so & so" plaque in the front cover as a thank you if it really is good stuff. :)

Re:Maybe if we ended public funding...

[EvilNTUser]

"people who actually use libraries would have to bear the cost -- I certainly don't think I should have to pay for something I never use."

Yeah, and then poor people couldn't afford information. Wonderful.

Re:Maybe if we ended public funding...

[RatBastard]

Yes, but the resource is there if you ever need it. I haven't called the police in 13 years, and even then it was to report an automobile accident I saw, but I don't mind paying taxes in order for them to be there when I need them.

There are a lot of public resources I don't choose to use that I don't mind paying for. Not everything is about me.

Re:Maybe if we ended public funding...

[randyest]

I certainly don't think I should have to pay for something I never use.

That's one of those sorts of statements that sound reasonable at first reading, but fall apart after further contemplation:

Even if you never drive a car, the publicly-funded roads benefit you by helping to reduce shipping costs for the products you buy.

Even if you never have kids, the publicly-funded school systems benefit you by helping to improve the education of those with whom you share a society (and to whom you might otherwise be contributing more tax dollars for welfare/entitlement programs).

I'd say libraries similarly benefit you even if you never visit one.

Better the libraries than ...

[BallPeenHammer]

I've worked on a number of book sales for my local library, and guess who their best customers are? Book dealers. Book dealers go to many local library sales, are the first in the doors, and swoop on all the best and most valuable stuff before the ordinary patrons roll out of bed. Then they resell the merch themselves.

Why shouldn't the libraries get the top dollar for their books? They're perennially short on the crispies and use it for the benefit of the community.