cinders asked:
My library system has 200 copies of The Lost Symbol (with more than 1100+ users on hold). That’s immense!!
My library system has 200 copies of The Lost Symbol (with more than 1100+ users on hold). That’s immense!!
In a few years, there’ll probably be only 20 copies of The Lost Symbol. I’ve always seen libraries order massive amounts of books (never this many though) and then they’re slowly depleted. Some are damaged and lost and stolen, no doubt. But what do libraries do with the rest of them?
Tags: Libraries, Massive Amounts, New Books, No Doubt, Order Books
When the demand has died down, they may:
Put some in storage to replace lost/stolen copies.
Discard them or sell them in a used book sale.
Donate them.
Those are the most likely options, in my opinion– the libraries around here all toss their weeded books in boxes and save them for their annual book sales.
I think they keep them in storage for if the books do get damaged, stolen, or lost. That way, they won’t have to order books every week. They just order a bunch of them and keep them on stand-by.
Mia is right. Libraries generally give extra copies to the Friends of the Library for their booksale. Libraries don’t keep books on standby.
You’d be surprised how fast the library will lose copies through attrition. Some won’t come back, some will return as dog chewtoys. And with a waiting list that long, it will be a long time before the library has more copies than it needs.
When you see those extremely high numbers of copies of books, there’s also a very good chance your library subscribes to a book leasing program that lets them get many copies of anticipated bestsellers (think Twilight, the Potter books, Baldacci, any Oprah book, etc.) on the shelves quickly so that hold times don’t become unbearable. A company named Brodart’s McNaughton Program is probably the best-known.
When the surge dies down, the library returns all but the few they need to keep up with the book’s ongoing popularity. I’m sure if you asked at your library, they’d be happy to tell you if that’s what they do (trust me, we’d LOVE to have someone ask us what we do…).
–Bill Pardue
Arlington Heights Memorial Library
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