Something to think about

In some communities around America, blue recycling bins for books are showing up. Booklovers are encouraged to donate books they no longer want with the promise that the books will be given to people who need them more--in third world countries or high poverty areas. Now the state of Oregon is investigating whether these recycling organizations are making money from donations and whether they are business opportunities rather than nonprofits interested in literacy development. The literary blog Book Patrol posted an item a day or two ago that indicates that half of the books donated are pulped, others are sold to for-profit distributors, and only a small proportion are given to charity. Now, that's not necessarily wrong. There are books that should be pulped because they are outdated and contain misleading information or stories no one wants to read; and the organizations have to make some money to pay for all those boxes, but it's a little troubling to try to disentangle the question of whether these people are truly out to do good or whether they are seizing an opportunity to profit. As far as libraries are concerned, one of the downsides is that fewer people appear to be donating to libraries, many of which depend on donations for book sales that raise money to build new collections. When books are given to libraries, we can be pretty sure that they are not making a profit for anyone but are giving back to the community in which they are collected. If you see blue book recycling bins showing up in your neighborhood, you might want to ask some questions about the operation and let your patrons know what's going on. In these difficult economic times, we want to encourage enterprise, but as librarians, our first duty is to keep our libraries strong.

What are you doing this summer?

Sometimes we come across a book that deals with such an important topic that we, as librarians and teachers, think we should read it, but hesitate to take on the daunting task. James Gleick's new book The Information sounds like just such a book. Mr. Gleick writes about the basic matter of all libraries and educational institutions--information. How it developed over time, how it was disseminated in times past, and how it is produced and used today. Some of this may sound too heavy when we consider that we deal with such basic information as books on baby animals and trips to the zoo for three-year-olds.But gathering information is a human trait that starts in infancy and the says in which information is structured and passed on to others is fundamental to any society. We won't give up reading the children's books that brighten the collections of libraries and delight both children and adults, but sometimes when we have a block of time (summer is coming) we might want to take a look at this basic approach to our most important product.