Pardon me for being an old poop...

...but I want to share something with you that made a big impression on me this weekend.
     I had the privilege of helping our director last Saturday as she emptied the two book drops just outside our library.  I actually helped with only one because I was working on something else.
     But when she came in from gathering the books from book drop #1, the pickup cart was filled to the brim!  Not with only our returned library books, but with paperback books (the small size) that someone had unloaded thinking we might be able to use them.  But now that I've said that, that's not what I really think they were doing.
     These paperbacks were old, old, old.  They were so old they were yellow.  And they were bent and torn and dirty.  Yep!  Dirty.  It's like they had come from someone's garage attic and had been up there for upteen years.  And they smelled!  Bad!
     Since I finished what I'd been working on, I went with her to retrieve the books from book drop #2.  And guess what.  Yep!  Same thing.  Lots and lots of old books, same kind, apparently from the same person.  The one I'd like to think gave us the books because they thought we might be able to use them.
     So, I'm going to be an old poop and say this...please! if you don't want old, yellow, bent, torn, dirty, and smelly books, please throw them away.  Because if you don't want them, we certainly can't use them.
     Sometimes we get bags (plastic grocery bags) and old boxes filled with old books and inside those books are bugs.  Sorry to say that, but it's true.  We certainly can't give those books out to our patrons!  But sometimes people drop them off anyway.
     As much as we always appreciate receiving gently used books, those in good condition and clean (and smell good too), we just have to ask you not to give us those old, yellow, bent, torn, dirty, smelly books.
     We appreciate your understanding.  We're a library, not a garbage dump.