Discarding books

A woman who buys used books to sell on eBay told me she bought library discards at the Friends of the Library Sale for $1 to $2 and resold them for a minimum of $10 per book (Hoppe, “Unionizing the Public Library,” April 12-19). A group of out-of-print sociology books and music books sold for an average of around $30 to $40 per book. She usually spends close to $500. Those books are irreplaceable. And they have been kept intentionally for years because they were the best of the best. Now citizens have fewer resources and have also lost money. One bookseller said library books have been sold to a company in Colorado instead of to local booksellers.

I am also concerned about the loss of the fine book collection we taxpayers have purchased over the years. Librarians traditionally purchased with awareness of community standards of education, information, decency and literary value. The idea has been to serve the community in a long-term, stable way, spending public funds on items of lasting worth. A library is not intended to replace a bookstore or DVD store where the emphasis is on rapid turnover for profit.

A reference librarian told me they are ordered to discard books not circulating for six months. Now, for example, at her branch library there are no longer any books telling how to make stuffed animals. The depth and variety of the book collection appears to be less than it was. The library administrator appears to be mismanaging valuable community resources. We used to have one of the top 10 libraries in the USA. Where will we rank in the future?