Is it common for libraries to throw books away?

Libraries are constantly throwing away books. Unless a library expands, it has limited shelf space. If you buy a new book, you have to throw away an old one. Some of the bigger libraries warehouse books, but even then, it isn't every book.

Librarians have a weeding policy, where older books that aren't being read are discarded (great way to increase your library). There are guidelines.

The books are freaking nuclear waste. I take the books from the library my wife runs to the dump and they act all horrified. They tell me I should be taking them to my library!

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Yeah, I was in the parking garage of a local library - pretty big one. As I was pulling away - I saw a worker tossing them into the dumpsters.

I'm afraid they do. With limited space and new books coming in several times a year they have no choice. Our local library has a book sale shelf right near the checkout. For fifty cents you can get some pretty great hardcovers. I'm not sure how long they hold off but eventually the books that don't sell are thrown out.

ishtar'sgate said:

I'm afraid they do. With limited space and new books coming in several times a year they have no choice. Our local library has a book sale shelf right near the checkout. For fifty cents you can get some pretty great hardcovers. I'm not sure how long they hold off but eventually the books that don't sell are thrown out.

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Our library has a HUGE annual book sale at the shopping center across the street. A third of the books seem to be ones they are taking out of circulation. The rest are ones that were donated which they couldn't use. I don't know what they do with the leftovers. I would assume recycle or toss.

I know they've got to throw some out sometimes, both because of wear, dating of the material (few people need a computer book from 1981, for instance) just to make room for the new stuff.

I'm sure the culling isn't as simple as "anything before 1989." The classics are likely to survive -- though possibly in newer editions.

Our local library has a little shop in the corner of the lobby where people can buy the books they cull.

PS -- Have you read The Shadow of the Wind?

ClaudiaGray said:

I'm sure the culling isn't as simple as "anything before 1989." The classics are likely to survive -- though possibly in newer editions.

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The only possible thing I can see if it's because of that lead in printed materials regulation. I don't know what the cutoff year is for that.

Sure, if nobody wants the book, even for free, what else can they do? I also throw away books occassionally if nobody else wants them. It tends to be a cull of books *not checked out* since a certain date.

Kathleen42 said:

The only possible thing I can see if it's because of that lead in printed materials regulation. I don't know what the cutoff year is for that.

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Possible, but unlikely. Libraries have a temporary exemption on the lead issue. Twenty years (1989) is a long period for a library. My wife looks at a book the first time after it's been there for five years. If it hasn't been checked out in five years and doesn't have any other redeeming quality, out it goes. I doubt that the person meant literally everything before 1989.

Best of luck,

Jim Clark-Dawe

Here's an exercise: Get all these books being thrown away (or just get the titles).

Type the name of the book in at amazon.com and see what used copies are selling for. I'm betting 9 out of 10, if not 99 our of 100 of the books they're throwing away are listed for $0.01. If it's listed for a few dollars or more, grab the book and list it yourself on Amazon.

And if you run across "How to write best selling fiction" just send it to me and I'll reimburse your mailing costs. I could use a backup copy...

It's really not too rare to run across books at library sales and thrift stores that sell online for $20 to $100 or even higher, but remember there are people with Scoutpals (barcode scanning dookicky for cellphone) scanning every DJ barcode, and getting back online prices within seconds, and they were waiting at the door before opening time (unless they volunteered and "helped" sorting books) so chances are overwhelming they picked over any valuable books already.

A lot of people won't buy a book with the wear and tags etc. that library use creates.

Man, I'd be grabbing those books, all I could. Libraries shoud have a sale day and I'd be right there.

At the end of those sale days there are always cartons full of 'undesirable' books.

jodiodi said:

Man, I'd be grabbing those books, all I could. Libraries shoud have a sale day and I'd be right there.

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Ahem. They usually do:
http://www.booksalefinder.com/
Link taken from my blog entry on how I inhale get books:
http://ben-bradley.blogspot.com/2007/08/how-and-where-i-buyget-books.html

$.25 cents at our library, if they don't go within the month, they go to a book exchange store in SLC.

While I really understand the throwing them away thing, shouldn't they be recycling them into new books, book covers or cereal boxes so that they actually get read one last time?

I hope they at least recycle...

You can pretty easily get into the Packrat Syndrome with books, as you can with anything else. It's not like tossing that dogeared copy of Oliver Twist, the one where the margins of the pages are now turned brown, is going to damage the cause of literature or literacy. Now, if the library is threatening to throw out an original of The Book of Kells, that would be a little different.

caw

My wife is director of a fairly small community library and her "Friends of..." hold monthly book sales of mostly donated books, as well a those weeded. It's a decent moneymaker, with shopping bags of paperbacks going for $2, and bags of hardcovers for $5. They get quite a few people who are looking to resell them on eBay. It's a win/win thing, since I spent two years handling eBay sales for her...and it was a pain in the butt to be constantly shipping books.

Yes, her policy is to turn away any books more than six years old, as well as those that smell the slightest bit musty. And books which aren't checked out are taking up valuable space. The weeding process is interesting, especially in sports. Any skiing AWers would understand just how dated books are when they describe 195cm straight skis as a new revolution.

Turning away books from patrons can be a tricky thing, and has to be handled with some care. They see it as hundreds of dollars worth of books she is snubbing her nose out, yet she's looking for donations to repave the parking lot?

Ours does put the books out in a giveaway pile to see if anyone picks them up. I'm sure they throw them away after a week, since books containing obviously dated material disappear. What's someone going to do with a government phone directory from 1974? I kid you not--that was in the pile.

I think we may not realize just how outdated some library books are. These aren't always old fiction classics. I stumbled across a site by a couple of librarians that had me mesmerized by old covers all day long. Give it a look and you might feel a bit better about the fate of the books.

http://awfullibrarybooks.wordpress.com/

Marie

I love that blog.

If libraries are forced to throw books away, can we make suggestions