Keeber's Kolumn

Library News, by David W. Keeber
Red Rock News
Date: September 21, 2007



Books, books, and more books. It is logical that as librarians we are surrounded by books, but sometimes, it can be too much! Not that I am complaining but after awhile, the number and sheer volume can be a challenge. Sedona Public Library receives hundreds and hundreds of books per week. New ones, old ones, purchased and donated – it wouldn’t be excessive to tell you that we can easily receive one or two pickup trucks of books each week.

The ones that are the most interesting, in my view, are the donated books. Whether someone has simply cleared off their shelves to make room for more they intend to purchase, or it’s an estate being dissolved and the Library receives all those that cannot be sold, almost invariably one can find a treasure or three in each odd lot. The challenge is to know the good from the bad – especially whether the good ones are REALLY good and worth some money.

The Friends of the Sedona Library have managed the book sales for years. All proceeds from those sales allow the Friends to support the Library directly. So, even if a book you donate doesn’t end up in the collection, its sale does directly benefit our work here. During the past year, we have changed how we handle some of those donated books. Often, people bring us a book from out of the book sales and state that “This book is worth at least $500. Why are you selling it for $3?” we have decided to delve more deeply into the “real” worth of many of the donated books. Real is a matter of perspective as one person’s treasure is another many trash.

Sometimes, a really obvious example of a rare book comes along and we have been able to sell it for its true worth. But, much of an esoteric book’s value is in the eye of the purchaser. Not all would agree it has real worth. Some collectors specialize in books of certain genre, style, period, author and so many more criteria. Knowing that there is a market for a particular book requires years of experience, or – the Internet!

Nowadays, there are many websites that post the value of collectibles – books or otherwise – from which a reasonable understanding of an item’s worth can be obtained. And that is just what we do. Sites such as alibris, abebooks, biblio, bookfinder, usedbookcentral and allbookstores all provide excellent information on the value of many old, rare, collectible or unusual books. A search gives you the value of the item you hold and then you simply list the title, a description and the price on other sites like eBay. We have found purchasers of many books and actually brought in “real money” to the tune of hundreds of dollars for a book. This has been a good avenue for the Sedona Public Library because we don’t often find those who wish to pay high dollars for a rarity coming into our book sales.

Our big challenge is to find enough people who are interested in learning the searching work and to donate their time to list the many titles that are starting to back up on our shelves. If you are interested in working with computers, searching the Internet, have an interest in old books and want to help the Library in a very direct way, please consider becoming a book searcher.

Each week, books we have listed have gone out the front door and returned to us a goodly sum of money. Please help the Library and the Friends of the Library by donating a few hours each week to this fascinating work. We will show you the ropes and establish a regular schedule with you. Your time spent here will be among interesting and friendly folks, doing work that truly helps us. And I’ll bet you learn something, too!

Please contact Karen Greenwood, our Volunteer Coordinator, to express your interest and schedule. Help the Library, have fun and raise money quickly for us without much effort at all!