[WillAdams]

That is what deep basement storage is for.

A last copy policy will ensure that when one wants to compare a first edition of _The Fellowship of the Ring_ against a second, one can get the full weight of Aragorn's snark:

>What did you fear that I should say? That I have here a rascal of a rebel dwarf that I would gladly exchange for a serviceable orc?'

[fhdkweig]

Schools in poor towns don't have multiple levels or basements or even extra storage rooms. What you see is all you get.

If there is enough space to have a room full of books, it would be better used as a publicly accessible set of stacks. The only real reason to have a librarian-only room is for books that are rare and valuable.

[WillAdams]

As I implied elsethread, the solution for that is better funding.

Someone needs to take up Carnegie's mantle and finish the job which he began.

[jerf]

You need a limiting principle or there is no limit to the "better funding" you're asking for until you have a Library of Congress in every small town in America, to no positive effect.

What's the limiting principle you propose? It has to be something real libraries and library funding sources can take action on, because they have to take real-world actions on them. So this is not a time for aspirational speeches or vague exhortations to "do more", which is the exact opposite of a limiting principle anyhow. What is "enough"?

[WillAdams]

The limiting principle should be that for a given ILL region/system, there is at least one copy of each book/edition which entered that system which can be loaned out.

As I noted, it's a pain for me to have to drive down to DC to get access to a book which _used_ to be in the local library system, but isn't anymore, or to purchase my own copy (which wasn't previously necessary).

[throwaway173738]

> to no positive effect.

This is a REALLY bold assumption you’re making here, and frankly until we’ve tried it I don’t think you can argue that it has no positive effect to put tons of books in every small town everywhere.

[bluGill]

Most books are not worth saving.

[S_Bear]

I used to work in a bookstore, and I've been working in libraries almost my entire career. Most books have no value. I've probably thrown out a million books in my life; most of them have been diet books, cook books, and political biographies.

My current library is around 2000 square feet and I acquire around 1000 books a year, so I have to toss around 1000 books a year, because they're made of matter and take up space.

[duskwuff]

It's a bit less of a thing than it used to be, but disposable books on technology were a thing for quite a while too. Think titles like "iPhone 6 for Dummies", "Learn Flash in 24 Hours", or "Windows 8 for Seniors" - there are a lot of books which were written (usually on the cheap) for a specific audience at a specific time, and which have no enduring value.

Also along these lines: test prep and study guide books. Same deal really.

[bombcar]

Goodwill is a much more accurate slice of “what is published” than any library is.

[kelnos]

Sure, there are always solutions, and many of them usually involve more money. But that money usually doesn't just magically appear, even with plenty of Carnegie-types these days looking to whitewash their reputations through philanthropy. The money often is the problem that needs to be solved, and there's just no source for those funds.

[gowld]

Someone can ask for a copy in the mail, cheaper than pre-emptively printing and storing thousands of copies of every version of every book.

https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?ref_=search_f...

[webnrrd2k]

What's stopping you?

[AtlasBarfed]

Society is completely overloaded with a vast surplus of commercial property. Something can be done

[WalterBright]

> That is what deep basement storage is for.

That's what scanned books are for. Didn't google already scan them all? And then the book publishers shut that down?

[Ekaros]

That is what big national central libraries are for. Hopefully government funded libraries actually properly archiving everything printed in the country.

[ForOldHack]

This is a brilliant observation, in regards to the first edition's depiction of Gollum.

In the first edition, he was depicted as a large creature, and Tolkien was upset about it, and in the second edition, changed the description to small.

This information was gathered by a rare book seller who's videos I find immensely interesting.