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Disposal of a private library of history books
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Direct questions and answers, this room is not for general discussion please
Direct questions and answers, this room is not for general discussion please
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Disposal of a private library of history books
My good friend recently passed away. His wife is looking for ideas on the disposal of his very large collection of history books.
The books are of world history, predominantly medieval, mainly Iberian and many written in Spanish. There are also books on Icelandic and Russian history, together with other historical topics. Thoughts so far
1 We find her a dealer in such specialist books - are there any thoughts / names of someone that would be interested
2 She donates the collection to an interested academic library. I will be contacting the history dept at Manchester University (our alma mater), the Manchester University library, the Bodleian. are there potentially any other institutes that may be interested
The collection needs to go in size-able chunks - not dribs and drabs
I would like to think that the first option is successful. The collection has cost a substantial sum in assembling (think 3 or 4 Amazon deliveries per week over several years... plus purchases from book shops etc), and it would be good for his wife to get a small recompense.
ebay is probably out of the question - it would take years for her to go through those sort of channels, even as batch sales - there are far too many volumes to consider this option and there is little appetite for this .
The collection is in Oxfordshire
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Not sure how to send a link to "History" and "Books and Reading" folders. Maybe the administrator may deem that this post sits better in one of those folders anyway
The books are of world history, predominantly medieval, mainly Iberian and many written in Spanish. There are also books on Icelandic and Russian history, together with other historical topics. Thoughts so far
1 We find her a dealer in such specialist books - are there any thoughts / names of someone that would be interested
2 She donates the collection to an interested academic library. I will be contacting the history dept at Manchester University (our alma mater), the Manchester University library, the Bodleian. are there potentially any other institutes that may be interested
The collection needs to go in size-able chunks - not dribs and drabs
I would like to think that the first option is successful. The collection has cost a substantial sum in assembling (think 3 or 4 Amazon deliveries per week over several years... plus purchases from book shops etc), and it would be good for his wife to get a small recompense.
ebay is probably out of the question - it would take years for her to go through those sort of channels, even as batch sales - there are far too many volumes to consider this option and there is little appetite for this .
The collection is in Oxfordshire
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Not sure how to send a link to "History" and "Books and Reading" folders. Maybe the administrator may deem that this post sits better in one of those folders anyway
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
No idea about selling, but if donating, I'd look at much smaller and newer institutions like Oxford Brookes, who are much less likely to have the books already.
The Oxford Oxfam bookshop could be another idea, they have a better idea than most about academic books and will sell rarer stuff online.
The Oxford Oxfam bookshop could be another idea, they have a better idea than most about academic books and will sell rarer stuff online.
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
Thanks for your response JohnB. That has given us food for thought… especially the Oxfam bookshop at Oxford. Thanks
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- The full Lemon
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
Universities have many collections named after donors of a lifetime's interests.
Consider a university with a strong department to which the books are relevant. One you'd recommend to a student of the subject. Approach them and ask: they'll be able to advise. Given the deceased's specialist interests, the widow will probably have heard him name names, and perhaps met some in academia who were his friends.
Polys aren't generally known for "pure academic" subjects. It might be wasted somewhere like Oxford Brookes, unless they're an unusual example!
Consider a university with a strong department to which the books are relevant. One you'd recommend to a student of the subject. Approach them and ask: they'll be able to advise. Given the deceased's specialist interests, the widow will probably have heard him name names, and perhaps met some in academia who were his friends.
JohnB wrote:No idea about selling, but if donating, I'd look at much smaller and newer institutions like Oxford Brookes, who are much less likely to have the books already.
Polys aren't generally known for "pure academic" subjects. It might be wasted somewhere like Oxford Brookes, unless they're an unusual example!
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- Lemon Half
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
Named collections are often viewed as white elephants by universities, as they cost money to catalogue and maintain. Like National Trust properties, they can require substantial assets to be provided to support the gift. Books going into a general pool are less of a problem than papers of course, and its easier if the department has full discretion on what to keep and what to dispose of.
People who leave their SF collections to the Science Fiction Foundation don't think of the effort of winnowing and transporting their stuff to Liverpool for example.
People who leave their SF collections to the Science Fiction Foundation don't think of the effort of winnowing and transporting their stuff to Liverpool for example.
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- The full Lemon
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
JohnB wrote:Named collections are often viewed as white elephants by universities, as they cost money to catalogue and maintain. Like National Trust properties, they can require substantial assets to be provided to support the gift. Books going into a general pool are less of a problem than papers of course, and its easier if the department has full discretion on what to keep and what to dispose of.
People who leave their SF collections to the Science Fiction Foundation don't think of the effort of winnowing and transporting their stuff to Liverpool for example.
Yeah, and this collection is "mainly Iberian and many written in Spanish. There are also books on Icelandic and Russian history," That is pretty esoteric stuff and its value may well be less than the cost of collecting and moving it.
The one type of history that does seem to be well received, in my experience, is local history. Many older people have lots of interesting local stuff from 50 to 100 years ago, and there are many vibrant local history societies around the country who appreciate such donations.
On the other hand my father's collection of first editions from 1930s Germany ended up being worth a lot less than I thought, and I had to give away much of it to anyone who would take it away.
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
AyresomeAngel wrote:My good friend recently passed away. His wife is looking for ideas on the disposal of his very large collection of history books.
The books are of world history, predominantly medieval, mainly Iberian and many written in Spanish. There are also books on Icelandic and Russian history, together with other historical topics. Thoughts so far
1 We find her a dealer in such specialist books - are there any thoughts / names of someone that would be interested
2 She donates the collection to an interested academic library. I will be contacting the history dept at Manchester University (our alma mater), the Manchester University library, the Bodleian. are there potentially any other institutes that may be interested
The collection needs to go in size-able chunks - not dribs and drabs
I would like to think that the first option is successful. The collection has cost a substantial sum in assembling (think 3 or 4 Amazon deliveries per week over several years... plus purchases from book shops etc), and it would be good for his wife to get a small recompense.
ebay is probably out of the question - it would take years for her to go through those sort of channels, even as batch sales - there are far too many volumes to consider this option and there is little appetite for this .
The collection is in Oxfordshire
Does anyone have any thoughts on this?
Not sure how to send a link to "History" and "Books and Reading" folders. Maybe the administrator may deem that this post sits better in one of those folders anyway
My father died in 2017 leaving a big private library of well over 1000 books collected over decades. Quite a few first editions, loads of non fiction: history, philosophy, quite a bit of fiction. We quickly found that selling them privately didn't work. Any retailer who was interested would only pay a fraction of what we felt they were worth, selling and listing them individually was a lot of work and did not result in many sales. In the end we found a very helpful man who ran a local book auction. We auctioned collections of books in several lots as advised by him. This was for perhaps 10% of the entire collection. The other 90% was given away, mainly to the specialist Oxfam bookshop who collected. At least with the Oxfam bookshop we felt they might get a decent price for some of the more valuable books.
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- Lemon Quarter
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
A quick Google of "Professor of Spanish History" turns up LSE, Royal Hollway and Portsmouth. Portsmouth in particular might be a good shout as a former poly, not being in central London where space is at a premium, and not too far away?
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- Lemon Slice
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Re: Disposal of a private library of history books
Is there some sort of Anglo-Spanish club or society that might have a library that would be willing to accept the books as a gift?
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