Public Libraries Trading Quaintness For Cash

Posted by michael on Tuesday December 2, 2003 @07:01AM from the overdue dept.

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."

2 of 295 comments (clear)

Re:Maybe if we ended public funding... by bluprint · 2003-12-02 07:37 · Score: 0, Troll

But they would most certainly still be able to afford cable...

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A modern day witchhunt.
Re:Maybe if we ended public funding... by zulux · 2003-12-02 08:20 · Score: 0, Troll

How should a six-year-old girl who uses the library pay for it then?

Your local priest may have some ideas..

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Moneyed corporations, non-working 'poor' and criminal prisoners are turning productive citizens into tax-slaves.