Book Donation Dilemma
Are you library-lorn? Maybe LJ can help.
-- Library Journal, 12/22/2005
Dear LJ:
I work in a small public library that enjoys great community support. Twice a year we stage a book sale that generates very nice additional funding for the library. The sale is also a huge social event and everyone in town shows up. Local folks are constantly donating books and our small storage space fills up to the bursting point long before each sale. While I truly appreciate the generosity of our patrons, we've run out of space. I've heard that other libraries sell donated books on eBay. I want to try that, but I'm afraid it will look bad to the donors. I don't want to offend them or have them think we're going into the used book business. Should we sell the books on eBay, or is the negative potential too great?
—Negative Feedback
Dear Negative:
Selling donated books is a time-honored way for libraries to raise money. Some even sell their own discards. Rule number one is this: Make sure when books are donated that the donor understands that he or she will not necessarily find the book on the library shelves, and that the library reserves the right to dispose of the book in the most useful way, and that can mean selling it or simply dumping it.
Several libraries tell us they do very well selling gift books on eBay. It does require time, and there is the potential for cutting out the community participation that is a valuable part of the book selling. You could let community volunteers handle the eBay posting and selling, and relieve the library of the burden at the same time while retaining some community involvement.
The problem is that it may not solve the storage problem. One librarian suggested that you have a book sale more often, and wondered why you just don't keep a few shelves of books on sale at the library all the time. She said the community involvement, volunteer participation, and local excitement of the big book sale days once or twice a year are worth nearly as much as the return in money, and you ought to try to preserve them. Another way to do that is to sell the books on the library web site, thus keeping the activity in the community.
There is really no right or wrong way to do all of this, and our advice is to try several approaches and see which ones do the best job to fulfill the purposes of the book sale, raising money, community involvement, and library support.
—Library Journal
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The above scenario garnered a marvelous alternate solution to the dilemma from reader Alex Hershey: "There's another great option which your answer didn't address—there are a number of well-established organizations that accept donations of books (and cover all shipping costs), resell them online, and then reinvest the funds into programs that benefit overseas communities. For example, Books Beyond Borders (with whom I work part-time), is currently putting its funds towards building schoolhouses in Nicaragua. Other groups focus on programs in other parts of the world, such as Books for Africa, Books for Asia, and so on. By donating to such organizations, libraries can free up valuable storage space without having to do any of the work (other than boxing up the books), all while supporting crucial social programs." Great idea, Alex! Thanks for the response. |
