CDL: Paperback Collections response 3

[original posting followed by response.]


> Subject: Paperback Collections
> From: Katie Boyes <kboyes_at_interchange.ubc.ca>
>
> Hello,
>
> I was wondering how other public libraries deal with paperback
> collections.
>
> Currrently our paperbacks are all donations and have brief catalog
> records.We are considering changing our collection of
> paperbacks...perhaps using only donations and not cataloging them at
> all, or purchasing paperbacks and have our collection be comprised of
> selected purchases and selected donations.
>
> Thanks for any and all ideas.
>
> ---
> Katie Boyes
> Public Serivces Librarian
> Flathead County Library
> kboyes_at_co.flathead.mt.us
> 406-758-5713

==3==

Subject:         Re: CDL: Paperback Collections
   From:         Werner Lind <wlind_at_mail.bluefield.edu>

    We integrate all of our books, regardless of type of binding or
whether they were
purchased or donated, so we don't have a separate paperback collection.
If a title we want to purchase is available in paperback, we get it in
that format to cut costs.
When books are donated, the deciding consideration in whether or not
they're kept and cataloged is what, if anything, they contribute that's
useful to the collection, not the type of binding (provided the binding 
is intact).
    Of course, we're not a public library, so our holdings of fiction
are
much smaller than yours.  Since most of your donations are probably mass
market
paperback novels, you might feel that our situation isn't relevant to
yours.
However, I think the principle behind our practice is a good one, even 
in the public library context.