Artbook rental

August 3, 2010 9:02 PM

Is there an online rental service for artbooks and coffee table books?

I do not have space for all the coffee table books I want. I do want to pore over the images at my leisure and then return to the loaner. Is there a Netflix style service online for these?

posted by ayc200 to Shopping (11 answers total)

Libraries are awesome for this kind of thing?
posted by moxiedoll at 9:03 PM on August 3, 2010 [6 favorites]

If you are unable to physically get to your public library there are often volunteers or staff that can deliver to your home.
posted by saucysault at 9:11 PM on August 3, 2010

and learn how to use ILL, interlibrary loan.

Also, you may be able to use libraries that you might not know you're eligible to use. For example, many state university libraries are open to any state resident, not just enrolled students.
posted by at at 11:41 PM on August 3, 2010

Interlibrary loan! It's awesome. Talk to your local reference librarian. Through reciprocal agreements, you can get pretty much any book as long as it exists in some U.S. library. I've gotten stuff from academic collections, not just public ones. It's pretty cool.

There are also book trading services like BookMooch.
posted by nakedcodemonkey at 11:42 PM on August 3, 2010

Nthing the library.

The main thing about doing something like this online or hacking half.com or abebooks or whatever is that art books are heavy. Which makes them a bitch to ship.

I am also a big fan of hanging out in the art book section of Barnes & Noble to browse and look at the pretty pictures.
posted by Sara C. at 4:22 AM on August 4, 2010

Some design companies that do home staging will rent out coffee table books as part of the staging package. They are considered accessories like vases or lamps to them. But for your purposes, the library is the best bet.
posted by WeekendJen at 7:23 AM on August 4, 2010

Most every community in the US will have a public library and if not you should be close to a university which should have a library you can join even if you are not a student.
posted by JJ86 at 7:46 AM on August 4, 2010

If its the postal aspect that is attractive many libraries will ship books for a small fee. My local library does so for $2. There are also private libraries that do so over a much wider area. The Boston Athenaeum happily ships (100 year old) books over to the west coast for me.
posted by tallus at 10:23 AM on August 4, 2010

Response by poster: I have already checked the library. No dice on finding books of this ilk ISBN 978-1-921002823

I guess I'll have to bite the bullet and purchase the books before reselling them online.
posted by ayc200 at 3:42 PM on August 4, 2010

That book is not scheduled to be released until November 2010. An earlier edition, Expose 7: The Finest Digital Art in the Known Universe, is only owned by 14 libraries (12 of them being art or design schools) in the US per OCLC, so I see your point about wanting to rent one. You may be able to get a copy through ILL, though. It is worth checking with your local public library.
posted by mlis at 4:03 PM on August 4, 2010

I have already checked the library.

w/r/t Expose 7 I would call and ask to speak to a reference librarian, explain that you have searched the libraries catalog and know that it is not available and you want to order it through Interlibrary Loan. You could mention that someone searched OCLC for you so you know there are copies owned by colleges in the US.
posted by mlis at 4:10 PM on August 4, 2010