Thank you for the replies on the topic of what to do with old books, which I know has been covered before, but you never know when new ideas will pop up! As requested, I've compiled the responses I received, below.
On a slightly different note: I've created a "Books to give away" blog: with lists of books recently donated to us which we don't need for our collection. Instructions for requesting them are on the blog. HASAFRAN RESPONSES ABOUT WHAT TO DO WITH REALLY OLD BOOKS: 1) I have been listing on Amazon Marketplace - some sell - some may be there forever. At some point I expect to throw those that are there forever away. 2) Sell them online for $5-$25 and institutions who don't have them will buy them ... eventually ... still, a way to raise $$$ for the small library and a way to get items to those who want them :) 3) One of our members has a used book store, so my suggestion is to give it to them (maybe some time we can get material in return if needed) 4) A couple of years ago, there was a hasafran message about sending Jewish materials to prisons for Jewish prisoners. That's where I've been sending my books (though I have to say I've never heard back from them that they received the boxes). http://www.jewishprisonerservices.org/dormantjudaica.htm. I also recently read a post about sending them to China, but I haven't followed up on that yet. In both cases, you have to pay postage. My paid job is in an academic library (I run my congregational library as a volunteer), and we just sent almost 1,000 boxes to Better World Books. They certainly don't want that many, and it was a special case on our part, but they do have minimum. The plan is that they sell the books, you get 15% of the sale, and 5% goes to a predetermined literacy program (I chose Room to Read). They will send the boxes, and they pay shipping. Ann Abrams, Librarian Temple Israel 477 Longwood Avenue Boston, MA 02215 617-566-3960 x116 [email protected] www.tisrael.org Check out our new online catalog! http://library.tisrael.org --- Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: [email protected] SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
