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

Libraries are underutilized infrastructure

[randall_burns]

The public library system strikes me as a grossly underutilized set of infrastructure. I'm glad to hear of IT helping the library system-I suspect that they'll return the favor.

Trading Quaintness?

[The Raven]

I don't want my library to be 'quaint'. I want them to have a good selection and low cost to taxpayers (me). I see this only as a benefit.

A) Throw the books out.
B) Have local book sale, make a tiny bit of cash.
C) Use eBay or Amazon, make a lot of cash.

Where is the loss? This makes absolute sense for everyone concerned, including the locals, who get better books in the library.