Gothic Romance Lending Library Question

[GothicLover]

The couple who have been housing and managing Gothic Journal's nonprofit Gothic Romance Lending Library in Spokane, WA, have resigned effective July 2012. They are getting into their 70s, and rightfully deserve retirement. The library's owner, Gothic Journal, is now faced with the dilemma of what to do with the 3,421 volume library. You can read details about it and see pictures of its extent here:

http://www.gothicjournal.com/index_files/Page5665.htm

The books have been donated by many gothic romance enthusiasts and publishers with the intent that they would be kept in perpetuity for readers to check in/out via the USPS. Usage of the library has fallen off over time, as there has been no budget to promote it.

If the GRLL is to survive, it needs someone younger than its 60+ current owner to carry on the torch.

Do you have suggestions as to what could be done with the GRLL (and its books) and/or who might be willing to take on its ownership, housing, and management? Or, is it a concept that is past its time, esp. given the growth of electronic publishing, rising postal costs, and the waning appeal of physical books. A majority of these books are and/or will become unavailable to the public over time, so it would be akin to sacrilege to just throw them in a dumpster. The owner has promised that they will never be sold.

Please post your thoughts on this perplexing dilemma, and I will pass them on to Gothic Journal, or you can contact the owner directly via the contact info there. Gothic Journal

[macmo]

Did you ever use the GLL? I would love to have used it but discovered it too late.
Where are they located?
I'd bet they could sell a lot of the books if they have someone willing to handle the transactions and shipping.

[GothicLover]

(01-16-2012 08:06 AM)macmo Wrote:  Did you ever use the GLL? I would love to have used it but discovered it too late.
Where are they located?
I'd bet they could sell a lot of the books if they have someone willing to handle the transactions and shipping.

You can still use the GRLL between now and July 1. It is located in Spokane, WA. As I stated in my post, the owner has pledged never to sell any of the GRLL library's books, as they have been donated by readers and publishers with that condition.

[The Ming]

Surely a public library or university library (maybe one that specialises in teaching creative writing/commercial fiction writing) would accept the books as a donation and continue to make them publicly available.

[GothicLover]

(01-18-2012 01:26 AM)The Ming Wrote:  Surely a public library or university library (maybe one that specialises in teaching creative writing/commercial fiction writing) would accept the books as a donation and continue to make them publicly available.

Such libraries throw the books out or sell them if they are beyond their useful life, they don't have shelf room for them, or the books are not checked out often enough. There is no reverence or guarantee that the library would remain intact. Some such libraries don't allow the books to be checked out, which would defeat the GRLL's purpose. I'll pass your idea on to Gothic Journal, however.

[The Ming]

(01-18-2012 12:45 PM)GothicLover Wrote:  

(01-18-2012 01:26 AM)The Ming Wrote:  Surely a public library or university library (maybe one that specialises in teaching creative writing/commercial fiction writing) would accept the books as a donation and continue to make them publicly available.

Such libraries throw the books out or sell them if they are beyond their useful life, they don't have shelf room for them, or the books are not checked out often enough. There is no reverence or guarantee that the library would remain intact. Some such libraries don't allow the books to be checked out, which would defeat the GRLL's purpose. I'll pass your idea on to Gothic Journal, however.

Yes, shelf room is the issue. My Uni library (one of the biggest in the country) has just put a whole lot of books into storage, which caused a big kerfuffle. I suppose the only viable option is to try to digitise them....big job I imagine.