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by finite_jest
1604 days ago
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> This is the cheaper/easier option, and several schools have already opted to do so. Do you have a source reporting that schools are actually removing books in response to this particular inquiry? It seems that they shouldn't be. (I am aware of other instances of books being explicitly removed from school libraries or curricula by the school boards.) What makes me skeptical is that I'm not sure in what situation physically removing a bunch of books from the shelves would be cheaper/easier than retrieving records about them. |
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Schools don't buy individual books. They buy packages. Those packages are not itemised, and the receipts don't list which individual books you received, just the number of titles in what genres. The people sending the packages don't have that information either.
You make a purchase, and get a guarantee of N titles, in X genres. The warehouse pulls down N titles, in X genres, with varying numbers of each individual title, and then sends that out. The individual titles come from the publisher under wholesale costs, so individual purchases aren't tracked.
The exact costs are further complicated by other discounts that may be applied. Seasonal discounts for different genres, some places will give you discounts if you return covers of damaged books (as proof of destruction), etc.
The records requested may literally not exist, and require the school to compare when entries appeared in their tracking system, as compared to when a purchase was made and received, reverse-engineering those costs.