Thousand of books
May 13, 2010 10:27 AM Subscribe
I am looking for creative suggestions for the thousands of book our library system is disgarding.
We are in the process of weeding our collection for the first time in many years. The result is lots of books that will be headed for the recycler or ????? I would love to see someone come up with a creative use for these. Added points for publicity generation.
We are in the process of weeding our collection for the first time in many years. The result is lots of books that will be headed for the recycler or ????? I would love to see someone come up with a creative use for these. Added points for publicity generation.
Have a freesale. Post ads on Craigslist or your local freecycle list. People will come for free books. Or, have a real sale: earn some money for your library. Then do a freesale.
posted by cass at 10:34 AM on May 13, 2010
posted by cass at 10:34 AM on May 13, 2010
Donate to prisons?
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:37 AM on May 13, 2010
posted by GenjiandProust at 10:37 AM on May 13, 2010
Erroneous: not the OP, but as a librarian I can tell you that quite often no-one wants the books, which is why they're being discarded in the first place. The ones that people may want usually end up in the book sale or handled otherwise.
The books that are discarded tend to be things like the childrens' books that proclaim one day in the future man will walk on the moon, encyclopedia sets from the first half of the 20th century, medical books with severely out-of-date and potentially dangerous information, or books that are damaged beyond real usability.
posted by telophase at 10:37 AM on May 13, 2010 [3 favorites]
The books that are discarded tend to be things like the childrens' books that proclaim one day in the future man will walk on the moon, encyclopedia sets from the first half of the 20th century, medical books with severely out-of-date and potentially dangerous information, or books that are damaged beyond real usability.
posted by telophase at 10:37 AM on May 13, 2010 [3 favorites]
My local library does a book sale every year. Thousands of books sold = LOADS of money generated for the library. It's a three-day event and on the third day they do a five dollar bag deal where you stuff a grocery bag (provided by them; donated by the grocery stores) full of as many books as you can for five dollars. The trick to the three-day sale is that the staff does NOT put ALL the books out at once. They hold back what they believe are good ones and put them out throughout the sale. So you can go every day (which I do) and still find great books that weren't there the day before (which I have), even on five-dollar-bag-sale day (we scored BIG on that one last year).
On preview: Yes, these are mostly good quality books but I do often see very out-of-date books at our sale. And yes, they do sell. Often times, especially at the five-dollar-bag-sale we'll see interior designers grab up old encyclopedia sets for use in staging bookshelves (for example). And there are people (I may be one of them) who actually like old, irrelevant books.
posted by cooker girl at 10:40 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
On preview: Yes, these are mostly good quality books but I do often see very out-of-date books at our sale. And yes, they do sell. Often times, especially at the five-dollar-bag-sale we'll see interior designers grab up old encyclopedia sets for use in staging bookshelves (for example). And there are people (I may be one of them) who actually like old, irrelevant books.
posted by cooker girl at 10:40 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
Our regional library has a big book sale every year. Put up some fliers, contact the local media and advertise super cheap prices. It'll bring people to the library.
posted by tresbizzare at 10:41 AM on May 13, 2010
posted by tresbizzare at 10:41 AM on May 13, 2010
I was going to suggest something like the Book Bar. You could hire an artist to build a scale model of the library building, made of the unwanted books. Seal it in a weatherproofing polymer and display it out front for a unique welcome to the world of books within your doors.
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:42 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by The Winsome Parker Lewis at 10:42 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
No, no, telophase. You're not putting it strongly enough. Some people may see "children's books that proclaim one day in the future man will walk on the moon" and think "aww...those sound quaint and delightful." Never understate how bad some of these titles are. I work as a used bookbuyer, and when we talk about bad books we're talking:
-Travel guides from the seventies,
-A diseased branch of the culinary arts known as microwave cooking
-Vague self-help titles that no one read when they were new
-Business books dealing with "the new stock market for the 80's!"
-Stories and anecdotes for the speech-giving salesman
-The number one bestselling summer read for 1992
-A book on astrology that was printed "especially for customers of New Health Day Spa"
-A Hallmark gift book about sisters, with photographs that aged poorly
-Entire sets of a teen series based on a tv show that aired for three seasons in 1989
-Somebody's mom's uncle's stories about the war, with uncomfortable chapters about his sexual coming of age in small-town Illinois, and lots of references to girls' sweaters
-A "thank you" book for teachers, in the shape of an apple
-A memoir of a nineties popstar's mom, written before said popstar took their fall from grace
-Somebody's science textbook from ten years ago
Not all books are magical special snowflakes that someone somewhere will tuck close to their bosom and cherish forever. Whether or not haikuku's particular library will have this exact list, well, I don't know. But yes, I'd say they should start with a sale. Stamp a withdrawn sticker on everything, bundle it with another library's discards, have it take place during a local street fair or something, or even take the books to a local street fair and set up in a prominent place. Let teachers/craftpeople pick through what's left over, in case they can use things for kids or collage or lord knows what, and then everything that doesn't sell returns to the cycle of life via your local fiber goods recycling dudes.
posted by redsparkler at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2010 [10 favorites]
-Travel guides from the seventies,
-A diseased branch of the culinary arts known as microwave cooking
-Vague self-help titles that no one read when they were new
-Business books dealing with "the new stock market for the 80's!"
-Stories and anecdotes for the speech-giving salesman
-The number one bestselling summer read for 1992
-A book on astrology that was printed "especially for customers of New Health Day Spa"
-A Hallmark gift book about sisters, with photographs that aged poorly
-Entire sets of a teen series based on a tv show that aired for three seasons in 1989
-Somebody's mom's uncle's stories about the war, with uncomfortable chapters about his sexual coming of age in small-town Illinois, and lots of references to girls' sweaters
-A "thank you" book for teachers, in the shape of an apple
-A memoir of a nineties popstar's mom, written before said popstar took their fall from grace
-Somebody's science textbook from ten years ago
Not all books are magical special snowflakes that someone somewhere will tuck close to their bosom and cherish forever. Whether or not haikuku's particular library will have this exact list, well, I don't know. But yes, I'd say they should start with a sale. Stamp a withdrawn sticker on everything, bundle it with another library's discards, have it take place during a local street fair or something, or even take the books to a local street fair and set up in a prominent place. Let teachers/craftpeople pick through what's left over, in case they can use things for kids or collage or lord knows what, and then everything that doesn't sell returns to the cycle of life via your local fiber goods recycling dudes.
posted by redsparkler at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2010 [10 favorites]
Rob Walker has blogged about many art projects that involve creative uses of books.
posted by Xalf at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by Xalf at 11:00 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
In addition to the book bar, you can make book chairs, forts, and sculptures. You could also see if any local art groups/classes would have use for them or if there are area schools that would be interested in using them for at projects. This link might also be helpful.
posted by questionsandanchors at 11:05 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by questionsandanchors at 11:05 AM on May 13, 2010 [1 favorite]
Our art class has an exhibit in our library right now, called "Altered Books." Some of them are truly inspiring and all of them are uniquely interesting! I donated some of our discards to the art class for this project. The only thing bad about it is that it seems as if I will never be able to be completely free of them!
posted by Lynsey at 11:09 AM on May 13, 2010
posted by Lynsey at 11:09 AM on May 13, 2010
Best answer: If you don't want to run the sale yourself, you can send the books off to a company like B Logistics who'll list them on several online marketplaces, and recycle/donate to charity any they can't sell.
posted by James Scott-Brown at 11:11 AM on May 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
posted by James Scott-Brown at 11:11 AM on May 13, 2010 [2 favorites]
redsparkler said: I work as a used bookbuyer, and when we talk about bad books we're talking:
-Travel guides from the seventies,
I know academics that research tourism of specific countries and old, dated travel books are central to that research. The older, the better of course but changing attitudes are always reflected in the writing. A lot of stuff has uses, condition not-withstanding. You'd be surprised.
posted by JJ86 at 11:24 AM on May 13, 2010
-Travel guides from the seventies,
I know academics that research tourism of specific countries and old, dated travel books are central to that research. The older, the better of course but changing attitudes are always reflected in the writing. A lot of stuff has uses, condition not-withstanding. You'd be surprised.
posted by JJ86 at 11:24 AM on May 13, 2010
Build a great big chair for the children's section (put it on a platform with casters to make it easy to move). The person doing story time can sit in it, or just kids doing some reading. If you have enough books, I could also see a fort or a castle made completely out of books being really fun.
posted by TooFewShoes at 12:19 PM on May 13, 2010
posted by TooFewShoes at 12:19 PM on May 13, 2010
I know academics that research tourism of specific countries and old, dated travel books are central to that research. The older, the better of course but changing attitudes are always reflected in the writing.
You could set up a website listing all the books and offer to post them for the cost of postage. Then you could post that website on Metafilter. You could match outdated travel books up with people who think they're in demand.
Or you could sort them by spine color and sell them for $14 per linear foot.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:17 PM on May 13, 2010
You could set up a website listing all the books and offer to post them for the cost of postage. Then you could post that website on Metafilter. You could match outdated travel books up with people who think they're in demand.
Or you could sort them by spine color and sell them for $14 per linear foot.
posted by Mike1024 at 1:17 PM on May 13, 2010
Okay, JJ86, point granted. But I can't imagine that those academics have too hard of a time tracking down out-of-date travel books from the last couple decades.
posted by redsparkler at 2:23 PM on May 13, 2010
posted by redsparkler at 2:23 PM on May 13, 2010
One thing that our system has done, is to have art design projects with the old books. We put them on a table, have some local designer come in to give basic design tips, and then have patrons cut / glue them into little dioramas. It would be a good program for almost any age, depending on how you advertise it, and might work to get people into the library while creatively using old stuff. Whatever is left over in terms of scraps you can recycle.
posted by codacorolla at 2:42 PM on May 13, 2010
posted by codacorolla at 2:42 PM on May 13, 2010
Yeah, it's not that NO ONE, NO WHERE EVER, WOULD POSSIBLY WANT A (outdated travel book, 1970s social studies text book, microwave cookbook, take your pick), it's that for the tiny, tiny group of people who might want such things, the flea markets and thrift stores and auction houses are spilling over with them, and will be long after we are all dead. There is absolutely no need to preserve every one of them.
Also, you are not doing your local thrift store a huge favor by "donating" that stack of scratched up 101 Strings albums you found in your grandmother's basement.
posted by the bricabrac man at 3:34 PM on May 13, 2010
Also, you are not doing your local thrift store a huge favor by "donating" that stack of scratched up 101 Strings albums you found in your grandmother's basement.
posted by the bricabrac man at 3:34 PM on May 13, 2010
I think these are the kind of books the OP means. We don't get books donated to libraries in the UK as is done in the US, but still, a lot of weeding is done (in the library I worked in, which was in an area where there were few readers, I got some good classic novels because what actually got checked out were crime and family sagas). Outdated encyclopaedia sets seem like a bargain, but when I was at school the 1950s set we had wasn't particularly useful - half the countries no longer existed, and the photographs of 'natives' and reference to traditional West African beliefs as 'those practised by backward people' could have been dangerous if I'd had less critical faculty. Public libraries do not perform the same function as academic or archival libraries, just as high street stores do not perform the same function as vintage retailers or costume hire archives.
Do you have a similar system to Books By The Foot - people who sell on books by volume to people who, for whatever reason, just want to fill a shelf?
posted by mippy at 4:21 AM on May 14, 2010
Do you have a similar system to Books By The Foot - people who sell on books by volume to people who, for whatever reason, just want to fill a shelf?
posted by mippy at 4:21 AM on May 14, 2010
If you want to get your books to people who will really really appreciate them, you could try BooksforSoldiers. You can contact the forum moderators about doing this with a huge number of books-- a lot of other libraries seem to do this too from what I can tell.
posted by lolichka at 10:11 AM on May 21, 2010
posted by lolichka at 10:11 AM on May 21, 2010
This thread is closed to new comments.
Someone near you must want those books badly.
posted by Erroneous at 10:29 AM on May 13, 2010