When items are a donation I make sure to give the whole "if we don't put it in our collection is it alright if we put it in the bookvsale?" but was thrown by him coming in in person (I hadn't met him before) with his own book and forgot to say that. On Fri, Jul 24, 2026 at 10:46 AM Michelle Parker < northadamslibrarian2@gmail.com> wrote:

Hi All,

What do you do with books local authors drop off that may be of questionable quality? There's a local author who has dropped off their book a couple times to put in our collection, but it looks very poorly put together and I read a little and it seems like there was no editor.

I looked over our Collection Development Policy and one of the criteria is "effectiveness of the format in conveying information" (which feels like it falls short on). They had dropped off two copies last time that just went in our book sale, but they came in again and dropped off another and I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to be like: "sorry, your book is poorly formatted and doesn't meet our collection development criteria"...

Any suggestions on how to let them down gently?

Thank you for your help!

Michelle Parker Librarian North Adams Community Memorial Library 517-287-4426 Library Website <https://www.northadamscml.michlibrary.org/> Library Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/NorthAdamsCommunityMemorialLibrary> [image: Logo]

-- Michelle Parker Librarian North Adams Community Memorial Library 517-287-4426 Library Website <https://www.northadamscml.michlibrary.org/> Library Facebook <https://www.facebook.com/NorthAdamsCommunityMemorialLibrary> [image: Logo]

As someone who edited a book on self-publishing and its consequences for libraries, I recommend creating a policy that requires a positive review to add the item. The issue then is how to override this policy when appropriate, but that shouldn't be a big problem. I'm afraid that no good way exists to let the person down gently. You could just add the book and then remove it six months later, but I agree that doing so could have negative consequences later. At least this person isn't asking you to buy it. Many books on self-publishing recommend doing exactly what this author did. Bob Dr. Robert P. Holley Professor Emeritus, Wayne State University 13303 Borgman Avenue Huntington Woods, MI 48070-1005 email: aa3805@wayne.edu ________________________________ From: Michelle Parker via Michlib-l <michlib-l@liblists.org> Sent: Friday, July 24, 2026 10:46 AM To: michlib-l@liblists.org <michlib-l@liblists.org> Subject: [Michlib-l] Self-Published Book Question [EXTERNAL] Hi All, What do you do with books local authors drop off that may be of questionable quality? There's a local author who has dropped off their book a couple times to put in our collection, but it looks very poorly put together and I read a little and it seems like there was no editor. I looked over our Collection Development Policy and one of the criteria is "effectiveness of the format in conveying information" (which feels like it falls short on). They had dropped off two copies last time that just went in our book sale, but they came in again and dropped off another and I didn't know what to say. I didn't want to be like: "sorry, your book is poorly formatted and doesn't meet our collection development criteria"... Any suggestions on how to let them down gently? Thank you for your help! Michelle Parker Librarian North Adams Community Memorial Library 517-287-4426 Library Website<https://www.northadamscml.michlibrary.org/> Library Facebook<https://www.facebook.com/NorthAdamsCommunityMemorialLibrary> [Logo]