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Date: Wed, 09 Feb 2005 09:06:17 -0500
From: Helen Mack (Lehigh Univ.) <hpm0_at_lehigh.edu>
Subject: RE - Selling gift books and withdrawn titles to a re-seller?
In preparation for the renovation of my library, several months ago we
removed duplicates from
our collection in certain call number ranges and weeded some other
areas. After discarding books
that were literally falling apart, we had approx. 4,000 books to dispose
of. We boxed and stored
them until we decided what to do with them. We toyed with the idea of a
booksale to sort of
appease the faculty who had been upset at the notion of our discarding
books, but ultimately
decided that the less said about this the better. We contacted Zubal
Books in Cleveland, with
whom we had a prior relationship, and they were very accomodating in
terms of moving the
material out in a timely fashion. Since these books were already boxed
into100 or so cartons,
we agreed that the review process would take place back in their
warehouse, and payment would
be made at that time. We also had about 600 unwanted gift books to
dispose of. These were
not boxed, so they were able to review them on the spot and pay us
immediately, then box and
remove them. We told a faculty member on our library committee (who was
one of the ones who
was upset) of our plans ahead of time, and he heartily approved, knowing
that the materials would
find eventually homes with people who wanted them.
If Zubal had been unable to work within our timeframe, we would have
tried Harvest Books
(near Philadelphia) or Busca (near Cornell). We also considered a local
used bookstore, but decided
that the volume of our material would be overwhelming for them to deal
with. Also the academic
nature of the material did not really lend itself to bookstore
browsing. Zubal has a massive warehouse
and they sell from their own website. They are also covered by the
major internet used book searches.
Maybe Powell's in Oregon would be interested in your materials. That's
the only huge used book
operation that I know of on the West Coast. If they can't do it,
perhaps they could suggest another
large bookseller out there. They do want to know ahead of time the
characteristics of what they would
be getting, so they don't waste their time picking up books that they
can't sell. For example, we were
able to tell Zubal that 90% of our stuff was humanities, primarily
literature and history, mostly from the
pre-ISBN era, with a smattering of quite new books and some sci-tech
materials.
One more thing: Several months ago, I learned that the American
Institute of Physics is happy to
receive donations of books within their subject areas (physics,
astronomy, geophysics, including acoustics,
optics, and medical physics). They will reimburse for shipping. If you
are interested in this option,
please contact:
Spencer Weart
Center for History of Physics
American Institute of Physics
One Physics Ellipse
College Park, MD 20740
phone 301-209-3174
fax 301-209-0882
http://www.aip.org/history/
Right after I finish this message, I plan to contact Mr. Weart about
approx. 100 physics books that we
have packed and ready to go.
Good luck!
Helen P. Mack, Acquisitions Librarian
Lehigh University Library
30 Library Drive
Bethlehem, PA 18015-3067 USA
Phone 610 758-3035 * Fax 610 758-5605
E-mail hpm0_at_lehigh.edu
Original Message: -------------------------------------------------
Date: Mon, 07 Feb 2005 12:22:49 -0800
From: Cynthia Hsieh (U. of the Pacific) <chsieh_at_PACIFIC.EDU>
Subject: Selling gift books and withdrawn titles to a re-seller?
[Ed. note: Just posted something of relevance to this topic a minute ago!]
Hi,
I am wondering if any library has sold their withdrawn titles and
unwanted gift materials to a re-seller? Can you share your experience
and recommend a few re-sellers? Thanks!
Cynthia Hsieh
Head of Technical Services/Assistant Professor
University Library
University of the Pacific
3601 Pacific Ave.
Stockton, CA 95211
Tel: 209-946-2571
chsieh_at_pacific.edu
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Received on Sun Feb 20 2005 - 15:55:39 EST