Kevin

Posted on 6/22/09

On 6/22/09, Theresa Hemingway wrote:
> I am a parent volunteer working to create a library for our
> small charter school. We are starting our third year and
> will have grades 6-8, with a plan to add a new 6th grade
> each year until we are grades 6-12.
>
> Because we are new and small, our budget is limited. In
> fact, right now we have a bunch of donated books and some
> books we got through Scholastic book sales, a $1000 gift
> card from Barnes and Noble that we earned through a book
> sale there, and the possibility of a $5000 grant that we
> have applied for. It's not much, but it's a start.
>
> We were planning to use Follett Library Resources to
> purchase books if we win the grant. However, the parent
> librarian at another charter school in our area told me
> that Follett books don't hold up as well as books bought
> from other sellers. What I'm wondering is if this is
> everyone's experience. Is Follett not a good company to buy
> from? If not, what company would you recommend? Besides
> quality books that will hold up to middle schoolers, we
> need good customer support to guide us in choosing which
> books to buy.

No experience on Follett books, but the Scholastic ones
definitely have a history of low-quality binding. My wife,
who runs a small private school library, has found that she
can stretch her tiny acquisitions budget a long way by
shopping used bookstores and Friends of the Library sales.
(Of course, if she were paid for the time she spends shopping,
it might not be such a good price, but she enjoys doing book
shopping and does it on her own time.)

Starting a library from scratch may be harder to do with used
books, as there may be several must-have books that are not
available on the local used market. Buying used books does
require having a good knowledge of the books the library can
use---what is in demand, what good authors are currently not
in the library, since you can't just make up a shopping list
and expect to find the books you want

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