Editor's note: What follows is Part 1 of Mr. Hardy's compilation of the
responses that were sent directly to him.
Date: Fri, 09 May 2003 9:09 AM
From: Ronald Hardy (Central College, Pella IA) HardyR_at_central.edu
Subject: Re: Libraries selling books? (Replies to Hardy, Part 1)
Greetings!
I have been asked to compile and share people's responses to
my query about selling duplicate and unwanted library
materials. It appears that there are a number of obstacles and
benefits. State funded libraries have problems with the State
allowing the sale of "state property", academic libraries can
run into business office restrictions, university constitution
restrictions, as well as re-selling items purchased 'tax-exempt'.
There are issues of staffing to handle the grunt work of packing,
shipping, and handling the finances. In regards to the online
book trade, there are tricky aspects of setting up a sellers
account, which generally requires a bank account, which our
library doesn't have aside from the college.
There are also listed here a number of solutions, book sales being
the frequently used method that we are all familiar with. Several
librarians report successful book selling online, some suggest
alibris (which I looked into, they do require a large start up stock),
or arrangements with a used book dealer, and a few lists.
At our college library we have fairly small book sales around twice
a year, mostly to sell discarded items and unwanted donations. My
concern was not with discards and donations, but with acquisition
mistakes. I honestly hadn't thought of including my 'accidental
purchases' in the book sale, partially because they are my dark dirty
secret mistakes that I didn't want to advertise. Since it is these brand
new items, which have order records and payments and invoices
associated with them that I want to sell and recoup losses, and the
volume is very small, (one dozen or so), I think I might either pursue
a dup-exchange type of list for libraries, or buck up and sell them at
the book sale. I don't want the hassles associated with handling the
financial aspects with our business office, the potential auditors
opinions, and the requirements made on online book sellers.
Thank you for all who responded. Following are your comments.
Ronald Kane Hardy
Collection Development Librarian
Assistant Professor of Library Science
Central College - Geisler Library
812 University - Pella, IA 50219
641.628.5221 - hardyr_at_central.edu
Mr. Hardy:
For many years this library purchased items for resale as a
convenience to patrons. GED, ASVAB, and Civil Service test
preparation guides, etc. We stopped this practice a few years ago
when our counsel pointed out we were buying items tax exempt at
discount and reselling at list. We were taking unfair advantage of our
vendors as well. To avoid questions about our tax exempt status we
stopped this practice. We had some discussions with our Friends of
the Library organization about operating a for-profit bookstore
to provide these same materials, but have not done so as yet.
Your inquiry presents a different scenario, but the issues might be
similar. Hope this helps.
==
Robert D. Chapman voice (313) 833-1982
Acquisitions Specialist
Detroit Public Library fax (313) 833-6527
5201 Woodward
Detroit, Michigan 48202
Dear Ronald,
I am replying to you off list. My department head gets free books
and review copies for adding to the collection. What isn't added
is sold at a yearly book sale or sold on half.com. He's been selling
there for a few years and makes several thousand dollars there each
year. He culls the best of the non-added stuff. He has also purchased
a book called, I believe, "Selling Books Online" and he said that
was helpful . He likes half.com because it returns a good price, it's
got features he likes and it's easy to set up and use. He checks his email
every morning, sells 3 or 4 things. He packs them up and sends them
out by campus post office. He's got maybe 200-250 books for sale
there at any time. We also sold a bunch of double-sided DVD's that
were bar coded on the top. The extra scenes were no good but the actual
movie was on the bottom side, so we sold them for a few dollars each
and they were all sold quickly.
It would be up to your comptroller to decide whether this is okay
for you to do. My boss takes the checks which are addressed to the
library, not him, and deposits them in our acquisitions fund. Donors
to the library cannot designate what happens to their books if they
are not added. I would advise you to keep abreast of what's hot and
when you get something very popular or whose author has been on TV,
pull that out to sell online. Technical books, car manuals, very recent
textbooks, Oprah books, all sell very well. Good luck!
Hello Ronald,
I have been saving rejected gift materials, mostly duplicates, to
send to Alibris (www.alibris.com). They have a consignment
program for libraries and offer a variety of contracts. However, they
do require a large number of books to start the program and have
some exclusions regarding what they will accept. As we have not sent
a shipment yet, I cannot tell you if this is a successful plan. We
do have high hopes and have not encountered any problems on the
business side of things yet, however, we are a private institution
and that may make a difference. I also received a flyer recently
from Zubal Books (www.zubal.com). They claim to buy library
duplicates, so you might want to check out their plan.
This probably is not as helpful as we have not actually seen a
profit yet, but I thought you might be interested in some of the
options. Good luck!
Julie Loder
Vanderbilt University
Email: julie.loder_at_Vanderbilt.Edu
Ronald:
I saw your post on ACQNET. You may want to take a look at the
Library Booksales website (http://www.librarybooksales.org/), which
provides a mechanism for libraries to sell books. I cannot vouch for
them, and we are not members. However, I came across them in doing
some research on a related topic and thought it would be of interest to you.
Joe Puccio
Assistant to the Director for Acquisitions
Acquisitions Directorate
Library of Congress
Mr. Hardy,
Aside from state regulations that govern the selling of government
property (that is usually justified as surplus property and should not
be a difficult permission to obtain), you need to consider the hidden
costs of selling on e-bay or anywhere else on the Internet. If you are a
private college, then there should not be any problem at all in selling
your surplus books.
My suggestion is to simplify. An annual book sale of unwanted gifts
And unexpected duplicates is a way to raise some money and gain
the goodwill of the entire campus. You may not get a lot of money per
book but I am not sure you would on e-bay either and you could
potentially spend a lot of time on the mechanics. Annual book sales
take time, too, but there is that cost benefit that accrues from the
campus community. Another option is to list the material for exchange
but that, too, is time consuming with more work than can probably be
justified unless there is a list that you would regularly and profitably
select from. Finally, I would consider offering, en bloc, your
duplicates and unwanted gifts to local (area or regional) used
booksellers. You would solicit sealed bids on the entire collection
with the stipulation that the dealer take them all at his expense plus
the purchase price. Dealers will take less valuable materials in order
to obtain the valuable items. The prices offered can always be rejected
but the beauty of this method of sale is that you don't have to list the
books, you don't have to involve staff in a book sale, and you limit
your efforts to storing the books and contacting dealers in your state
and your region. Used-book sellers travel widely to replenish and
enrich their book stock. I have used, at one time and place or another,
every option here except e-bay and would not use that for the reasons
stated above and more. For example, you would still have to process
checks and ship books, too much trouble for an uncertain outcome.
I hope this helps.
Best regards,
Tom
Thomas W. Leonhardt
Director, Scarborough-Phillips Library
St. Edward's University
3001 South Congress Avenue
Austin, TX 78704-6489
Voice: (512)448-8470
Fax: (512)448-8737
leonhard_at_libr.stedwards.edu
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Received on Mon May 19 2003 - 16:56:03 EDT