Book Board Chat

Library of Michigan Wraps Up its Book Sale of 75,000 Volumes

By Bill Castanier

You won’t hear the bang of an auctioneer’s gavel, but when bidding closes online this week for the final lots of books being auctioned off at the Library of Michigan. Since midsummer, the Library of Michigan has been selling more than 75,000 books. (mibid.bidcorp.com). Some of the books date back to the late 19th century.

Early in its history the library collected books within broad categories of topics and circulated them across the state in areas where there were no libraries. The books in the collection were categorized under the Dewey Decimal System. In 1987 the Library of Michigan converted to the Library of Congress system. But those original Dewey books were never rolled into the new system. In the last several decades this collection saw little or no use.

When the state was looking for ways to save money it determined the library was an easy target and it was hit with more than $1 million in cuts. It was able to maintain its Michigan and Genealogy collections, but pretty much everything else was determined to be expendable, including staff: The library once had more than 130 employees, but that dropped to 32.

Since late summer the library has sold off books ranging from “Who Put the Bomb in Father Murphy’s Chowder” to books on the nation’s rocket program. The books were auctioned off by ascending Dewey classification numbers, and the final Dewey category, the 900s, was put on the auction block last week, along with some American, German and French literature.

The auction has generated approximately $15,000 in revenue. It was an easy way to dispose of the books since the winning bidder has to haul them away. The majority of books were sold to book dealers who had the ability to handle large quantities. The biography lot of nearly 9,000 books offered in the most recent sale took upwards of 350 boxes and a big truck to move. Most of the books were sold in the range of 50 cents to $1 per book.

Ray Walsh, proprietor of Curious Book Shop in East Lansing, was the winning bidder of the Dewey category Greek literature, consisting of approximately 476 books. He said he has seen some of the books sold at the earlier auctions turn up in local antique markets. “The library should be commended for disposing of these books under the circumstances,” Walsh said. “They’d run out of money and out of space.”

Walsh said many libraries have always practiced deaccession, selling unwanted volumes at periodic book sales. That has not always been the case. Walsh remembers watching a library toss books into a Dumpster 25 years ago. He said he was able to rescue bound copies of periodicals from the 1800s.

It’s bittersweet seeing the materials go, but then again, there hasn’t been any demand for these materials. One book in the lot of the Africa section is “The Journals of Major-General C.B. Gordon at Kartoum,” published in 1885. Two copies of the title are advertised on Amazon at $30 and $45. It’s likely another one will join them soon

http://www.lansingcitypulse.com/lansing/article-6573-turning-old-books-into-new-revenue.html