Why not head on over and take a gander?
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In other news, I thought it might be fun (heck, at the very least blog filler) to give an update on the small mountain range of leftover Literacy Signing books I hauled away from RWA two weeks ago.
The hardest part of the whole process, besides getting the books out of the convention center, was what to do with them once we had them in my library. It took several volunteers, a few pages, and several staff members to get tables set up in our community room and then....unpack boxes. We organized things loosely in alphabetical order by author last name. The challenge was getting all the copies of whatever title grouped together so we knew exactly how many we had.
After taking one of everything to add to my library's collection, what happened with the rest of the books? Well, our Friends of the Library took quite a few and ended up selling them. This money, in turn, gets dumped back into my library for various projects and book buying. Then we opened up the room to the other librarians in the system - of which we have over 30 branches.
I have to say, the ones that really took advantage of the opportunity went hog wild. One librarian, collecting books for two locations, hauled away eight boxes! I do my best to routinely purchase paperbacks for the system, but given the way our budget has been for the last several years, I don't order as many titles as I should, and the number of copies tends to be ridiculously tiny. A lot of our libraries still find themselves relying on donations to fill out their paperback collections, which sucks - but hey, you can't bleed a turnip.
This ginormous horde of books that dang near killed me and the rest of my coworkers (who I think I may owe donuts for life now) was like manna from Heaven. A way to update and refresh our paperback collections that tend to get half-beat to death. And did I mention that all the leftovers were fairly new releases? The majority of what we got were 2012 releases, with a smattering of 2010 and 2011 items.
After a week of making the room available to the other librarians, this is what I have left to deal with:
Later this week I'll grab a volunteer and we'll start randomly throwing things in boxes. Then I'll send out the call to the other librarians (Boxes! I've got boxes!) and send them out to whomever wants them. At this point these books just need to get gone - so I imagine these leftovers (titles we got a huge number of copies of) will end up in various Friends' book sales to benefit their respective libraries.
I'm not going to lie, this was a crap-ton of work. A huge undertaking. I never thought I'd say this, but I'm tired of looking at romance paperbacks. But you know what? If I could go back in time, I'd still yes to this offer. The opportunity was just too amazing to say no to, and if you're a librarian who has the chance to take RWA up on this offer?
Take it.
8 comments:
Give yourself a well deserved pat on the back! I am so happy that many libraries reaped the rewards of your hard labor.
Our librarian is on vacation so he probably won't answer the call, but I talked to several other staff members and they all hope you really will send us three or more boxes full as our romance collection could mostly use a complete refilling.
Jami: Two of the old delivery bags are heading your way! You guys got one of everything that was left.....
Hey Wendy!!
Two big thumbs up for the endeavor you undertook, but seriously, I can't help but think of how amazing it is for your library and the over 30 branches! and LOL, I'm a reader and I would have gone wild too in that room! :)
Aloha, Wendy! I was just thinking of you and your boxes of books! FYI, I asked RWA if they would doante the leftovers from the goody room (from the luncheons and the book signings) to a Yellow Ribbon event across the street at the Hilton. RWA said yes, I grabbed a bellman, and we donated a cartload to the military families. I just received an email from the organizer, thanking RWA and me for our effort. He noted the "more colorful covers" went like hotcakes (I think he was referring to spicy). In the end, everyone was a winner!
Nath: Sooooo, many books. I took one or two for myself, but was fairly good and held myself back. It helps that I had a lot of the Harlequins already in digital format! LOL
Vi: I can't take all the credit. I think I may owe my coworkers donuts for life :)
Kim: That's so great that the goody room leftovers found homes!
We're in the throes of getting all these donated books processed, and wouldn't you know it? I just happened to need a display idea this month. Lots of shiny new paperbacks on display for people to browse and check-out now.
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