ANDREW NOSTVICK OP/ED EDITOR
To help create space, the Vogel Library is sending most of their older books to Better World Books, an organization that sells those books to vendors, in hopes of finding them a new home.
The project, which was started this year by library director Jean Donham, also gives the library an opportunity to give some of its books to third world countries, librarian Eileen Myers said.
“It’s just a win-win situation,” Myers said. “The books are not going to end up in the landfill. We don’t have to pay postage to send these things to Indiana, where they go through the books after we release them.”
Donham said she discovered the organization while she was the library director of Cornell College, adding that her secretary heard about them and suggested looking into it.
“Libraries have wondered for years what to do with books that are no longer useful,” Donham said.
“Sometimes we have books that could be useful somewhere, but not here.”
The library has already sent 100 boxes full of books to Better World Books, averaging about 30 books per box, Myers said.
The organization does set guidelines for the condition the books have to be in, Myers added.
“It cannot be damaged, where the spines are broken,” Myers said. “They have to be something that you as an individual can sell on E-Bay or Amazon.”
By removing some of the older books, Meyers said it opens up space in the library to bring in new things.
“You have to make room for new stuff to come in,” She said. “If you’ve got stuff just sitting there in the way, there’s no space to put in new or vibrant, more interesting material.”
The library receives 15 percent from the sales of the book, Meyers said.
In regards to cleaning out the bookshelves, Donham said it’s good to have a green solution.
“Some books are appropriate to donate to worthy places and they do that as well,” Donham said. “Some books just need to be recycled for the paper.”
The library also has an in-house book sale. Meyer said they’ve held two sales this school year.
According to their Web site, Better World Books was founded in 2002 by three friends from the University of Notre Dame. They started selling textbooks online to earn some money and that led to a mission to promote literacy.
Better World Books has donated more than one million books around the world, according to their Web site.