We have a small group of shelves in our library available for selling used books. We sell all hardcovers for $1 and paperbacks for $.50 -- only rarely charge more if a book is especially valuable. Our goal is not to get rich off these sales nor to bring in "market value" of each book, but to find homes for the books, move them our of our space, and make a small bit of money in the process.
Sadly, I do throw out some books from donations -- such as textbooks (which don't sell well at all) and anything that smells moldy. We also have a public library in town that runs a used bookstore -- I sometimes give them our overflow, but they accept only harcovers and also not textbooks. Again, sadly, I sometimes do discard mass market paperbacks, if they are in poor condition and have sat on my sale shelf for a long time with no interest. I know that shelters and hospitals might be interested in some of our overflow or discards, but I just don't always have the time to research who wants what and make the deliveries -- perhaps you have a volunteer who might do this? Last, but definitely not least, it is important for you to consider writing up an acquisition policy that defines what types of materials are suitable for your collection and that definitely includes language about who has the final say as to what will be added to the collection (in our case, that is me, the Library Director). This is out fall-back protection if anyone questions why their donated books were not added to the collection. If anyone asks me first, before anonymously dropping off donations, I always say that I will accept a SMALL donation (1 or 2 bags or boxes) in GOOD conidition, as long as I have permission to sell whatever we don't need for the collection. People rarely object to this. Liz Elizabeth Edelglass Library Director Jewish Community Library JCC of Greater New Haven 360 Amity Rd, Woodbridge, CT 06525 (203) 387-2424 x330 libr...@jewishnewhaven.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: hasaf...@osu.edu 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
