Save the date for the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library Spring Booksale on Friday, April 10, 10 am to 6 pm and Saturday, April 11, 10 am to 2 pm. This year’s annual Friends of Library Big Booksale is coming early with Spring flowers.
Join your fellow community members and sift through the thousands of paperbacks, DVD’s, and audio books for the Big Spring Booksale, to raise funds for the support of the Friends of Brooks Memorial Library.
The books and other items are piling up for this important annual event. Remainders will be on sale during the month of April during regular library hours.
The Friends of Brooks Memorial Library was organized in 1990 to support the Library in providing the highest quality library service to the community by means of advocacy, public relations, and fund raising.
For more information please contact the Library at 254-5290, ext. 0. Become a Friends of Library member by downloading a Friends membership form at http://brookslibraryvt.org/about/support-your-library. Location Library Main Floor.
For more information contact Mary Ide, friendsofbrooksmemoriallibrary@gmail.com
Rules?
What sorts of rules are in place to protect us from book dealers buying up everything?
Last time I was there, dealers had swept in first thing, thrown most of the good stuff into piles, and then would sit and decide what they would take from those piles. Seemed rather unfair to the rest of us, who liked to look at (now emptied) shelves.
Library staff was even helping them. “Can I find a box for you?” There was so little left that I walked out (in the morning on the first day).
Perhaps people could be limited to a certain number of purchases per hour, and taking piles of books to price check and consider could be frowned upon.
If not, perhaps the sale should be just for book dealers. : )
It probably doesn’t matter much to the library, as the books get sold either way. It does matter to me, deciding if it will be worth attending. Otherwise, it’s an event I like to make time for.
This is a great point. I've
This is a great point. I’ve been physically blocked from being able to look at – let alone remove from the shelves- by local buyers who grab up large stacks of books and then hoard them for an hour or more while they check the monetary value of them. I’m there to find books to read for pleasure. When I’ve read them I donate them back to the library to be sold at their next sale. Many of the larger libraries prohibit book buyers from this practice; Copley Square library in Boston, for instance, used to have volunteers mingling with the crowds during their large book sales who – if they noticed people off to the side going through large amounts of books would tell them that either had to purchase the books or return all but 6 books to the shelves until they were done “checking” them out. Maybe Brooks could initiate a similar strategy. I think if you’re buying books for personal use you know within a few seconds whether it’s something you’re interested in. It does make these sales much less fun to have all the “good stuff” snatched up by 2 or 3 people who may end up not buying them.
Friends "early bird" opening?
As KAlden knows, I am a past president of the board of Friends of Brooks Library, so when I saw this I sent the comments to Mary, who replied with the following:
Mary Ide, President of the Friends writes:
“We have considered having a Friends “early bird” opening but that has had its own set of problems when it was done in the past.
Limiting purchases is an idea. But then I have seen “regular people” purchase a heap of books.
We have discussed the dealer issue at our Board meetings; the feeling has been that it would be very difficult to block dealers out. And yes, you are right, we do make money from them.
What I will suggest at our next Board meeting is that we do not allow dealers to make piles and do their computer searches while hoarding books. That might help.
If you have other ideas, let me know.”
For me, the issue isn't how
For me, the issue isn’t how many books people buy. I often – in the past – have bought 15 books if the choices are good. It’s the buyers who are waiting at the door when the library opens, who rush to the shelves and grab dozens of books and then take them off to a table and look through their stash to determine which ones they can sell and for how much. More often than not they leave behind many, many books that could have been purchased by other readers. For those of us who wait for the annual book sales in order to replenish our dwindling bed side stacks of books, it’s a little frustrating. Obviously the library wants to sell as many books as possible- it is a fundraiser, after all. But, it’s also a community event where neighbors and friends run into each other, see what everyone is reading and have a pleasant hour or so doing something we all love: buying books. Many community sales in lots of places state “no dealers”; even vendors at large flea markets often discourage dealers. I think with a little brainstorming there is probably a way to allow book lovers to have a fair chance at “the good stuff”.
It should be able to work for everyone...
I know and like book dealers, and get many a book from them. I know it is important for them to get to this sale, too.
I’ll toss some ideas out for argument:
– maybe hold back good books and put them out at regular intervals during the sale, so there is no advantage to being “first”?
– maybe offer dealers a special end of sale discount to clear things out?
– maybe limit number of books per hour?
– alternate sales and do every other sale for dealers, then patrons…. we each wait our turn.
It’s one of the better used book sales, and it would be great if we could figure out a way for it to work for everyone.
Some interesting ideas. I
Some interesting ideas. I think it would be difficult to ascertain what books are the “good” ones- unless it’s an obvious distinction like something rare or a first edition. I imagine those kinds of books might be offered on the library’s online sale since they would be able to get a much better price. Setting down some simple rules like, perhaps, no patron can have more than 6 books at a time to peruse or maybe the first 2 hours of the sale could be for non dealers?
I think putting too many rules in place will deter “regular” readers from coming and nobody wants that. Maybe FOL could ask around and see how other libraries handle this situation. I suspect that many of them don’t – they are just happy that books are being bought.
Counterpoint
I understand some of the concerns of non-dealers, AND my wife sells used books so I empathize with the dealers’ perspective as well.
I appreciate Chris Grotke’s problem-solving approach. Too often I have heard vilification of book dealers. We would never smear an entire ethnic group, but sometimes it seems fair-game to insult members of a particular profession, as though every single one of them is guilty of the same sins.
What does “dealer” sound like? A shrewd, high-powered “wheeler-dealer” exploiting every advantage? Actually, used book selling is, at best, a marginal business, which has become increasingly difficult as retail prices drop and the large online services find more and more creative ways to squeeze the individual dealers. Like many dealers, my wife continues her efforts to scratch out an income because she loves books, and because it provides some independence from the corporate overlords.
When I see people writing about “the good stuff,” I wonder how many of them realize that there is little correlation between the literary quality of a book, and the market value. How often have I found a book at a sale, only to be told by my wife, “That is a great book, but it sells for a penny.” (Yes, there are penny books. The strategy of penny sellers is to make a small profit on shipping & handling, and sell volume.) My wife disdains scanners, she is old-fashioned, relying on instinct and experience. If scanners were steam-drills, my wife would be the John Henry of book dealers.
And speaking of John Henry, has anyone who is disturbed by dealers ever considered how much physical work it is to handle a large inventory of books? Or what it involves to store them? For our book storage area, we had to beef up the underlying floor structure in order to safely accommodate the weight of two elephants in the room. In order to preserve our books, we aim to keep the temperature at a narrow range, and all spring, summer and fall we run a dehumidifier, to prevent our inventory from getting that “old-book” mildew smell.
All that effort must be profitable, right? My wife does not keep track of her hours but I keep track of profit and loss; and I can tell you that if she were hiring herself instead of being in business for herself, she would have to bring herself up on charges of unfair labor practices for not paying herself the minimum wage.
I have been to many book sales as my wife’s go-fer. Some sales are poorly-run, resulting in an unpleasant experience for the volunteers as wells as for dealers and non-dealer book aficionados. Many sales, especially those which have been around long enough to get their act together, are able to create an atmosphere of neighborliness and respect.
At most of the sales which attract dealers, there is no problem about “the good stuff’ being snatched up before “ordinary” people can get a chance, because there is plenty for everyone. After the initial flurry of activity, when my wife no longer needs my assistance, I often go looking for science fiction, history, or anything that grabs my interest. There is generally plenty of the “good stuff” left for me because those books that I find intrinsically interesting, rarely have commercial value.
I think that the difficulties at the Brattleboro sale are that it is relatively small. Few if any dealers come from afar because it is not worth their while. But the total number of books available is such that the few local dealers who come have a big impact. The ibrattleboro discussion has not been hateful toward dealers, but I do feel that there has been somewhat of a lack of understanding.
I think it is a healthy discussion, particularly the perspective of Grotke, who is searching for solutions which take into consideration the need to find workable solutions that work for everyone.
Thanks for a thoughtful view
Thanks for a thoughtful view into the book dealer’s perspective. I have dear friends who have owned a wonderful abeit tiny used book store in Massachusetts for over 30 years. They recently had to make the heartbreaking decision to close because they can no longer compete with Amazon and other massive online book sellers. So, I can both appreciate and empathize with book dealers. And, again, my concern is not with how many books dealers or anyone buy at the library sale. Nothing would make me happier for the library than to see the shelves empty -all the books having found new homes. My problem is when a book dealer (and I am, in no way, singling out Donna) stands in front of a particular section of books; scans the titles and swoops a couple of dozen books away to peruse more fully. Let’s say a dealer chooses 20 books to take off to the side and check out for resale value. Maybe they end up buying 6 or 7 of those books but the remaining 14 books have been removed from the view of other potential buyers- many of whom only have an hour or so to spend at the sale. Buy as many books as you want – just don’t prevent the rest of us from looking and buying while you’re busy deciding if it’s worth your while to buy them. Is there a way for dealers to perhaps take a few books at a time- check them out and then go back for more? And, in terms of the “good stuff” -that’s certainly different for every single person who attends the sale. What may be a find that makes my day could mean nothing to the person standing next to me. But, I’d like the opportunity to view as many of the books as possible while I find something that looks “good”.
The fact that this particular book sale is small – not only in number of books but in physical space makes it all the more frustrating when the people who are there for business purchases make it difficult for people who are buying for personal reading to access the shelves.
I’m not sure what the solution is – certainly having several book sales a year is a wonderful thing and ,of all the things in the world that can drive people apart I would hate to think that a room full of lovely books would be one of them. I appreciate the friendly and thoughtful tone of this thread of conversation and that it is apparent that we are all looking for a fair solution to make the annual book sales the pleasure they are meant to be.