College and Research Libraries


.. 

Surplus Boo~s Available from Army and J\l.avy 
Instructional Programs 

Part of a summary prepared by Jesse 
Hauk Shera from returns from a question-
naire sent from A .L.A.· Headquarters for 
the A .C.R.L. Committee on Wartime A c-
tivities~ Feb. 24~ 1945. 

Of the I I 5 questionnaires sent out from 
A.L.A. Headquarters, returns were re-
ceived from 7 5 libraries. Of the number 
which answered, 3 I, at almost one-third, 
replied "no" to the first question asking 
whether they had or would have books or 
periodicals to be offered for sale. 

· Of the remainder, I 6 replied to the sec-
ond question that they had no knowledge 
of any plans to dispose of surplus library 
materials when the training courses spon-
sored by the armed services were liquidated 
and IO others said that their stocks had 
reverted or would revert to the military or 
naval authorities establishing the projects. 
Of this last group, two libraries indicated 
that the books had first been offered to 
them for their collections but in neither 
case were they interested. In I 5 institu-
tions all or a portion of the books were 
acquired by the university, and of these, 7 
returned surpluses to the armed services, a 
similar number sold at least a part of 
theirs through the college bookstore, and 
in 9 instances the library purchased all or 
a part of the books. 

In answer to question three, concerning 
the character of the volumes, .there was 
universal agreement that they were almost 
entirely texts; 22 libraries stated that they 
were largely in engineering, I I showed a 

great proportion of titles used in the study 
of foreign languages, and the remainder 
indicated that the books represented a wide 
variety of texts in history, government, 
science, geography, and "Western civiliza-
tion." As one might expect, most of the col-
lections were composed of relatively few 
titles duplicated in large quantities. 

There was general agreement, too, in the 
belief that by and large these books were 
unsuitable for libraries, and I 3 said so in 
so many words. . However, I6 expressed 
the opinion that they might contain some 
titles useful to the small college, I2 thought 
that possibly the larger universities might 
find a few of the books serviceable for 
reserve purposes, 7 believed that public 
libraries might find them useful, but only 
4 considered any of the materials appro-
priate to the needs of libraries in rural 
commumttes. Two librarians suggested 
selling the books to dealers. 

By way of summary it may be concluded 
that the surplus books remaining after the 
discontinuance of the army and navy pro- · 
grams have little value for any library and 
that the disposal of these residual titles 
offers no opportunity for a coordinated in-
terlibrary program. The .relatively low 
importance of the books, taken in con-
junction with the governmental require-
ment of lot bidding, which compels the 
purchaser to take all or none, suggests that 
the best method of handling this problem 
is for each institution to work it out as best 
it can with reference to its own particular 
situation. 

376 COLLEGE AND RESEARCH LIBRARIES