Are you ready for another?

     Summer must be the time for surveys, because I have another for you.
     Those of you who visit our library know we have a certain amount of books every year that we put on "sale" tables.  Those tables go up after our August inventory week, after a generous amount of "culling" has been done.
     Last year we discovered Book Sale Finder, a business out of Hudson, MA, run by Helen and Thomas Oram.  Their motto:  "Book lovers still drawn to physical books - especially bargains."
     In June of this year they had a nice survey on their website and I was especially interested in the "Survey of Used Book Buyers."  I'd like to share with you what I learned, since I'm a used book buyer also.
     The survey was conducted in November 2010 by BookSaleFinder.com.  Over a period of about two weeks, they asked visitors to their website to take the survey.  All of these surveys can be found at http://www.BookSaleFinder.com/Surveys.
     People are attracted to non-profit sales because the books usually cost about $1 each, so they can buy lots of books at bargain prices.  Even during recent upheavals in the book publishing industry, people who love books continue to purchase "physical" books (YEA!).  A large number of those people are happy to buy recycled books.  (People who indicated they were book dealers were given a separate survey, so this one doesn't reflect their responses.)
     Where are people buying books?  79% of the respondents have never purchased an e-book, but with that category being so new, it's perhaps notable that 21% have bought at least one.
     Also notable is that 43% purchased over 40 books per year from non-profit sales, and nearly two-thirds bought at least 20 books from these sales.  The various venues where books were purchased were: e-book downloads, online new book stores, new book stores, online used book stores, used book stores, and non-profit book sales.
     Why do people attend charity book sales?  63% responded that they just read a lot of books.  Also, some said they collect certain types of books (24%), some home-school their children (3%), and others gave various reasons (10%).  Most respondents said that the bargain prices were the main attraction (83%), but others said "to find treasures," or that they supported the sponsoring organization, the sale was a community event, or other simultaneous events were being held at the same time (bake sale, etc.).
     What do people typically spend?  More than half  responded that they attend at least 6 sales per year, and 25% said they attend at least 11 sales per year.  And they buy a lot of books at each sale, with the emphasis being that the books usually cost 50 cents to 1 or 2 dollars each...so a bag of books may cost only 5 to 10 dollars!
     And for the most part, people purchase hardcover books (are you surprised?) at non-profit sales (81%), but paperbacks are close behind (64%).  Trade paperbacks (51%), library discards (51%), videos and DVDs (33%), audio books (22%), and magazines (17%) made up the rest of the purchases.
     Of course, fiction topped the genre list at 66%, with reference at 36%, cooking at 35%, children's at 35%, how-to at 26%, young adult at 24%, travel at 20%, and textbooks at 12%.
     OK!  People have all these books now.  So, what do they do when they are finished with their books?  The people who filled out the "book lover" section of the survey had already indicated their primary reason for attending book sales was NOT to buy books to re-sell, so it is remarkable that nearly 1 in 5 sells their books online.  But some people do nothing with them; they just accumulate (52%), while others give their books to friends and family (58%), or donate them to a book sale (62%)
     In keeping with this survey, I'd like to ask you the question:  What do you do with all the books you purchase?  Maybe like some of the Book Sale Finder's respondents you'll say: keep them in my classroom library, leave them at the hospital, swap them, donate them to the Armed Forces, give them to those without books, sell them, etc.
     Let us hear from you.  Give us your survey answer right here, right now.
     Thanks for letting us know you are a "bargain" book lover.  And by the way, August is one month away and we're getting ready for another big book sale!