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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;dougsmit, post: 991542, member: 19463&quot;]It is not just coins.&nbsp; Reference books of any kind are becoming less and less popular as more of the &#039;want to know&#039; crowd realize that there are ways to find out better than books.&nbsp; The Internet is making too many books obsolete before the ink is dry.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>I live in a county of 1 million people and 9 branch libraries.&nbsp; Budget cuts caused the libraries to fire their reference librarians keeping the circulation people who issue library cards, check out/reshelve books and managers who decide how to spend even less on books than they did last year.&nbsp; I could quadruple their numismatic quality by donating the books in my attic that I would never lower myself to read but if I did, they would go straight to the book sale.&nbsp; The cost of a bar code and the time it would take a master degree holding professional to input the book in the system outweighs the value of books on coins of possible interest to two or three people in the county at best.&nbsp; Librarians spend a lot of time helping people log on to the Internet but can&#039;t help the clueless find things.&nbsp; More people come through the doors to use a computer than to check out books except for recreational fiction and children&#039;s books.&nbsp; I have bought ten books this year and none are in any public or university library (even if they would let me use them) within reasonable driving distance.&nbsp; Library of Congress is only three hours.&nbsp; </p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>If your numismatic needs are filled by Red Books, try used book stores.&nbsp; If you need common US subjects, consider the American Numismatic Assn. lending library.&nbsp; If you want the last book I bought, check here:</p><p><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=sylloge+nummorum+Graecorum+Turkey+1&amp;qt=results_page" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=sylloge+nummorum+Graecorum+Turkey+1&amp;qt=results_page" rel="nofollow">http://www.worldcat.org/search?q=sylloge+nummorum+Graecorum+Turkey+1&amp;qt=results_page</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Seriously, give Worldcat a try:</p><p><a href="http://www.worldcat.org/" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://www.worldcat.org/" rel="nofollow">http://www.worldcat.org/</a></p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>You may have to try several variations on the title especially when a book exists in several versions (hard, soft, large print) but after you get the hang of it you can find out who has it but won&#039;t lend it to you.[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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