Survey of Public Library Book Sales Practices

Book excerpt: The survey presents data from 50 public libraries, predominantly in the USA but also from Canada and Australia, about their library policies on sales to the public of excess and donated books, DVDSs, audiobooks and other forms of intellectual property. The study presents highly detailed data on revenues garnered, prices charged, venues sold through, sources of revenue, and many other factors in library materials sales. The study helps library planners to answer questions such as: how much do libraries earn by selling books online? What percentage of library book sales are accounted for by Friends of the Library and similar groups? What are total revenues through all sales of intellectual property by libraries and what is the trend in revenues? How many book donations do libraries receive each year? How many DVDs? How many of these do they keep for their own collection and how many do they manage to sell? What are the best-selling genres?