Selling off Spec. Coll. books for fundraising. Many moving parts...

Two of my favorite bibli-bloggers have posted on the recent USF sale of material from their collection. PhiloBiblos and BookPatrol have written well crafted articles on the issues, with notable differences...both should be read. 

I've nothing to add as to facts and the over-arching issues. Personally, I think such sales are likely to be short-sighted solutions to much deeper issues and are unlikely to serve a useful long-term goals. That said, such efforts can certainly raise considerable sums and one has to think that such efforts are not pursued lightly. But then, broader issues sometimes fall to the wayside.

The most famous of these revolves around the Bodeian's First Folio. It entered the library in 1623 and was sold to a local Oxford bookseller in 1663-4 as part of a small collection of "superfluous library books sold by order of the Curators" for £24. "Superfluous" because the Bodleian had purchased a Second Folio, thought to be "better" and thus, the first was just taking up space. Sir. W. Osler spearheaded the campaign around the turn of the 20th century, to bring the Bodleian's copy back to the library (to the tune of approx. £3000).

I am not certain there *is* a right answer. There are a variety of issues in play and the balance can very greatly. In the end, it is hard to argue that having things come back to the market...to enter private collections and/or other special collections...is not good for the book trade as a whole. The next several months should be interesting....