library book sales

[William Blair]

> Have y'all had much luck acquiring vintage computer books/info via
> library book sales?

Out of appreciation for their valuable and FREE inter-library loan service to me in my many
requests for rare books on many esoteric topics (including a Konrad Zuse book about his Z3 relay
computer of which there were only 8 copies nationwide), I volunteered a year of my service to the
used book sales effort within my big city library system.  Since most cities of any size now have
computerized systems which quickly identify books that haven't been checked out for long periods,
the odds of finding a older computer book from _within_ a library system are becoming increasingly
lower. 

However, books donated to the library system by individuals can be a different case.  I found no
valuable computer-related books among the many TONS of books donated to my local library system (I
was their computer book evaluation specialist - most books went straight to the paper recycling
dumpster). However, I have no idea of how many old and valuable computer books may have been
tossed into a dumpster _before_ they got to me due to branch library efforts to thin the donated
book numbers before shipping them to our central facility.

Many rare books of other types are received and other topic specialists often recognized those.
However, I caught a rare one that nearly got away for the standard $2 large-format hardbound book
price!  While were were stocking the warehouse for one of our very large book sales, I was given a
box of books donated by someone who was obviously into the Olympics since youth and was told to
simply place them with all of the other large format books.  Within that group of books was a MINT
condition two-volume, large format German photo album set published in 1936 entitled "DIE
OLYMPISCHEN SPIELE 1936."  It was about the 1936 (Nazi) Summer Olympics and was sent from a German
uncle to his nephew Hans in the US (per inscription). This book had already been through numerous
bookworm hands before I finally caught its value.

Moral of the story: go to your library book sales!!!  You help your library system financially and
may be helping yourself to a rare book or two in the process. 


 
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