question: book club book swapping?

A reader writes “I’ve volunteered to be on a committee to develop our regional book club in a box program. Are you aware of a network where libraries can trade or otherwise share book club or (fill in your city/campus here) reads program books? We have virtually zero money and need fifteen copies of each title; our current titles have been practically exhausted by our readers. Any advice you can offer would be much appreciated.” If anyone has experience with something like this, if you could leave some information in the comments, thanks.

bibliomulas = book mules

If you don’t read Kevin Kelly’s blogs you might like them. They are great combinations of gadgetry and sensible living. In the upcoming book A Day in the Life: Career Options in Library & Information Science one of the people who writes about her job is Kevin Kelly’s librarian. The most recent post I’ve enjoyed on the Street Use blog is this one about mules used in Venezuela to bring books into mountain villages. A little more about this program is on the BBC website. [thanks mark!]

How many Harry Potters do you buy?

This is from a reader’s email. I know if you’re a bookstore you can pretty much order as many Harry Potters as you can, because you know they will sell, but how does a library decide how many Harry Potter books to buy? I do a lot of work in libraries, but I have never been on the book ordering ends of things. I know how librarians choose which books to buy, but not how many. If anyone would like to help out with some simple explanation for my library patron reader, I’d appreciate it. update: Glenn asks a good question in the comments: do libraries want our “old” copies when we’re done with them? I know there are a lot of HPs that are already gathering dust in homes across the US.