What to do with old books that haven't been picked up for years? It's something most of us wrestle with once in a while, although hardly on the same scale as the National Library of New Zealand (NLNZ), which is unloading about 600,000 books from its repositories. NLNZ wants to make more room for its Maori, Pacific, and New Zealand collections. Most of the books selected for disposal are from NLNZ's Overseas Published Collection (OPC). Some are being offered to other New Zealand libraries. According to Rachel Esson, NLNZ's director of content services, expert staffers check the books that are earmarked for possible disposal to see if any are "relevant to current research interests and collection strengths" and should be kept. The remaining books are then offered to New Zealand libraries for first right of refusal for their local collections before other options are explored. The first phase of the project (50,000) found new homes for 2,000 books and the rest were donated to Rotary and Lions [clubs] who have taken the books for book fairs they hope to run in October this year. We are still looking at options for subsequent tranches after selections have been made by other libraries and organisations," she says.
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