So many expatriate picture books
June 29, 2021 6:53 AM Subscribe
I am an USA school librarian. The school doesn't have a large budget for the library, so we regularly solicit and receive donations of children's books. A disproportionate number are British imprints (not American editions). Where are they coming from?
The books in question are British imprints (not United States editions), often highly commercial publishers, such as Priddy Books, Parragon, and so forth. They are proving a headache to catalog for an U.S. library because they are not in the Library of Congress cataloging system. I am using WorldCat for them. They are new or nearly new, with full-color illustrations, but otherwise mediocre.
My question is how did they get here? I don't think there are enough British/Commonwealth families in the USA with kids who bring all their books over here.
I can see that once the books were donated in the US, that schools and public libraries have been passing them on because of the difficulty in cataloging them, but is there some donation program that is spreading them?
There is no stamp or label on these books that shows such a thing.
The books in question are British imprints (not United States editions), often highly commercial publishers, such as Priddy Books, Parragon, and so forth. They are proving a headache to catalog for an U.S. library because they are not in the Library of Congress cataloging system. I am using WorldCat for them. They are new or nearly new, with full-color illustrations, but otherwise mediocre.
My question is how did they get here? I don't think there are enough British/Commonwealth families in the USA with kids who bring all their books over here.
I can see that once the books were donated in the US, that schools and public libraries have been passing them on because of the difficulty in cataloging them, but is there some donation program that is spreading them?
There is no stamp or label on these books that shows such a thing.
Could they just be coming from Amazon? I.e. people are just buying them and not realizing they are UK imprints. (And passing them along b/c they aren't...worth keeping). Anecdotally, my mom (a retired elementary librarian) sent my son a book set (from A.) for his birthday. US author, originally published maybe 10 years ago? Was a UK edition which she didn't realize until we told her about the unexpected vocab we were seeing in the book.
posted by snowymorninblues at 9:48 AM on June 29, 2021
posted by snowymorninblues at 9:48 AM on June 29, 2021
Maybe they are Usborne Books? Or an imprint of Usborne?
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:55 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:55 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]
Back in the day, it seemed like the Half-Price Books chain stocked a huge number of not-American books. Not sure if they still do. I know the last time I was in one looking for gardening books, all they had were specific to English gardens and plants.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on June 30, 2021
posted by Thorzdad at 5:29 AM on June 30, 2021
Who do you solicit donations from? If they're from the community, I'd guess that you had a couple of expat British families with loving grandparents back home who send piles of children's books to their grandkids, and who then pass them along to you.
posted by gideonfrog at 6:00 AM on June 30, 2021
posted by gideonfrog at 6:00 AM on June 30, 2021
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posted by zamboni at 7:00 AM on June 29, 2021 [2 favorites]