Went into the local library a few months ago and found that they had gotten rid of most of their antiques and collectables books. No more books on Art Pottery, Comics, Baseball Cards, Antique Furniture, or Coins/Paper Money. They used to have a small but decent selection of numismatic books including several Redbooks, a book on grading, several books of different popular series, a few books on ancients and world coins, and a few on currency. But not any more since they decided to expand their lounge and community space, they got rid of a large quantity of books and their shelves are not packed anymore. Incredibly disappointing in my opinion since a lot of these books were donated by collectors groups and friends of the library. Sure many were a bit dated but a few year old book coin grading or art pottery isn't going to hurt anyone. Does your library system have any numismatic books?
Hi Joe....wife is a librarian (retired) but she recommends checking if your library system is a co-op, in which case most of these volumes would have ended up there in the archives as a 'last volume'. She also tells me that too many libraries rely on the internet for intellectual content given to patrons of the service. We all know that there ain't nothing like a hands on book to conduct research, but these modern sorts are quickly changing things. My library has numismatic items mostly in the reference area. Plus periodicals in the magazine section.
Good suggestion! I do know libraries are doing this. I haven't asked about off site book depositories but I did check the online catalog on their website and they are not listed anymore.
In my area the libraries share books. You can request a book from a different library and it will be transferred.
We still have a numismatic section in each branch but it's very limited: a Red Book, a Blue Book, and a copy of the large Krause world coins catalog for 2000 onward. Our main library has a better selection, with some select volumes on Roman coinage, Standing Liberty Quarters, etc., but I don't think they're supplementing it much anymore.
Yep, I've gotten many numismatic books via interlibrary loans. A lot of books that I couldn't afford to buy for myself, and more that I didn't really need to own but wanted to read or reference for a specific reason.
Over at the Powell Library at UCLA, it's quite disappointing to see that in the stacks, the vast majority of shelves aren't even half full. The question is - why? If there's space, then why not fill it up?
I’m guessing when you said “library system,” you meant the local public library. In that case, I have no idea, because I haven’t been to a public library in years, but I do know Frank Kovac donated his numismatic library to Stanford University, and I’m pretty sure the public can access it, if not check things out.
Kinda sad to hear this. As a kid, I relied on the books in my library to learn for free. And I definitely made extensive use of interlibrary loan! I basically went through the redbook systematically and asked them to order every single reference listed. Over the years between middle school and high school, I was able to read a pretty comprehensive numismatic corpus for free.
No numismatic volumes in my library system. The stacks get thinner and thinner as the years go by while the homeless population using the bathrooms and the computers gets bigger. Last year, they had to post an armed deputy in the library at all times.
