Random Bibliographic Musings #1

When you read about book collectors and rare book dealers, you learn that more often than not, they hunt down first editions. As I was wandering through the stacks at work today, it occurred to me that pretty much every hard cover version of any book we have is a first. Most public libraries would have collections worth a mint if not for one tiny little factor: processing.

If driving a car off the lot halves its value, then processing a book does as much damage. Actually, it pretty much kills any and all monetary appreciation. By processing I mean, of course, gluing on pockets, stamping the library name, plasticizing the cover, adding a barcode and so on. That doesn’t even count wear incurred by use.

The purpose of any book in a public library is to be circulated above all else, otherwise the citizens’ tax dollars would be wasted. The more a book goes out, the more value the book has. Our currency, you see, is people. On a purely intellectual level, the ideas and language within a book are also not bound to pages inside two covers. Books are written for an audience.

I always wonder if an author would rather have his or her ideas widely spread, or sell a few copies more but have fewer people discuss or know about it. Public libraries, without a doubt, allow more people to access a given title. Most people would simply read less if there were no way to get a book for free. That said, if a library has even a single copy of a book and forty people take it out, that’s forty books not sold. But forty people wouldn’t ever have bought it, or read it, or discussed it. I’d say about ten might have; another few would borrow it from them; perhaps some might have sold it to a used book dealer, who would in turn resell it. Often it happens that runaway bestsellers do very well in both libraries and bookstores, but not always.

For publishers, it’s quite a predicament. I wonder if public libraries were invented in our day and age and didn’t have the weight of tradition, if they’d even be legal today. You can say that literacy is a public good, etc. etc. but in our times, money often seems more important. Then again, libraries are also major purchasers of books, so they kind of have to be catered to as well. To throw in another twist, people in the book business are usually bibliophiles to some degree, and I’m sure that many grew up loving libraries, which helped foster the admiration for books in the first place. Certainly they would not consider public libraries a threat to their livelihood. Hmmm…

I just wonder about things like this, hence, the title ‘random bibliographic musings’.

Comments

[jmfausti]

I know that I can not begin to afford my reading habit. I buy a lot of books, but I don't buy all the books that I read. I borrow tons of books from my local library. Sometimes, if I really enjoy a book and I know I want to own it to reread or pass along to people I know, I will buy the book later. So, borrowing from the library still may get an author another sale where I am concerned. Libraries have been around for a long time and authors are still publishing books and making names for themselves. I think it all balances out in the end.

[Quillhill]

Isn't your question answered by the reaction to what Google is trying today--to make available electronically all the information that the library currently makes available in print?