The Misadventures Of Super Librarian

Hickey update - it's still here. And while it's faded some, it still looks like I was attacked by a vaccuum cleaner.



It's a beautiful, gorgeous Saturday here in Southern California - so that must mean I'm at work! To add insult to injury, the boyfriend (AKA the evil hickey giver) is enjoying the surf and sand in Santa Monica, where he is meeting some buddies from his misspent college days. He did buy me my Christmas present today though, so it's not like I can stay too mad at him.



As long as I'm at work, let's discuss one of my favorite library-related topics - donations. I love pawing through book donations. I really do. If I had my druthers, I'd spend my entire day knee deep in boxes and bags looking for buried treasures. But alas, this is not a perfect world. Let me give you fair blog-readers some pointers on what you shouldn't donate to your local library:

1. The library doesn't want your old books that smell like pet urine. At least I hope that's pet urine smell....
   
   
2. The library really doesn't want books that have been stored in your garage, barn, and/or outhouse for the last 20 years.
3. The library really doesn't want 30 year old paperback novels that look 30 years old.
4. No one wants or needs an encyclopedia from 1965.
5. Readers Digest condensed books are the tool of the devil.
   
   
6. The library does not want your old phone books.

No joke, I had a little Vietnamese man donate his entire collection of old phone books last week. I smiled, nodded and proceeded to haul them out to our dumpster after he was long gone.



Of course when I got back from lunch this afternoon I found another little Vietnamese man knee deep in the same dumpster taking away those old phone books.



So I guess it is true - one person's trash is another person's treasure.



My favorite thing about donations is that no matter how dirty, smelly and/or gross the books look, the person donating them always says "There are some really nice books here."



It really is hard to keep a straight face some days.



But it's not all garbage. For about every 10 people who haul in books that their cats coughed up, there is that one person who brings me a box full of gems. This last week it was a man who loves to read "macho guy" books. I got several choice biographies as well as hard cover books by Clive Cussler, Jack Higgins and others of that ilk.