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]

Do you have a Local Author policy or collection? We accept pretty much any books written by local authors and we shelve them in amongst the rest of our collection - in other words, we don't have a separate Local Authors collection area. We put a Local Author sticker on the spine which, to me, alerts patrons that this book is here because it was written by someone local, not because it meets our normal collection standards. We do require that local authors donate their books; after all, if we're having to spend taxpayer dollars, the books need to meet our collection development criteria. We have a very broad definition of "local" - any writer who lives in Michigan or used to live in our city, Huntington Woods. But if you wanted to limit the number of donations, you could draw a much smaller circle, like only people currently living in your community. I want to also comment on the requirement that books have a review in order to be considered. I used to say that, too. Then I read that only a very, very small number of all books ever published gets reviewed by a trade journal or major newspaper and that many times the publisher pays to have its book reviewed. We also had a picture book author send me a link to an online review when I pushed back on adding his book and used the "must have review" rationale. It was difficult to tell if the online review was legit or not - do authors pay to be on these sites? I couldn't be sure. So then I added that books needed to have been reviewed by at least 100 people on Amazon so it couldn't just be the author and their five best friends. Really, it all got too complicated, too nuanced, too much in favor of corporate authors and I was spending way too much time on it. That's when I decided to establish a work-around for local authors and quit trying to fit them into our regular collection criteria. For me, it has been like a breath of fresh air. No more hassling with authors, no more icky feelings of crushing someone's dreams. We just accept the donation, add it to our collection, and remove it when it hasn't circ'd in three years. Simple and easy. Good luck! Deb Hemmye Library Director Huntington Woods Public Library 26415 Scotia Road Huntington Woods, MI 48070 248-543-9720, ext. 686 Currently listening to Less, by Andrew Sean Greer. From: "Michlib" <michlib-l@liblists.org> To: "Michlib" <michlib-l@liblists.org>, "Michelle Parker" <northadamslibrarian2@gmail.com> Sent: Friday, July 24, 2026 12:52:06 PM Subject: [Michlib-l] Re: Self-Published Book Question 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 [ https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.northadamscml.michlibrary.org_&d=DwMFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=sW0QtgsUF_VTgHYbMLAYDX2ikQwQhwFgtcNmyu5STJQ&m=0gpZVUZrmh3V2EOHMCR6_NjU6BJg_Oz5iOmDG_1LMnbrWR4FBFaCY6J8p9lZMu7F&s=xZFITXl-koqXIaS_XHRgQGHNog0FqFjOsUlxGNus-0o&e= | Library Website ] [ https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=https-3A__www.facebook.com_NorthAdamsCommunityMemorialLibrary&d=DwMFAg&c=euGZstcaTDllvimEN8b7jXrwqOf-v5A_CdpgnVfiiMM&r=sW0QtgsUF_VTgHYbMLAYDX2ikQwQhwFgtcNmyu5STJQ&m=0gpZVUZrmh3V2EOHMCR6_NjU6BJg_Oz5iOmDG_1LMnbrWR4FBFaCY6J8p9lZMu7F&s=TsWTgu-tq4tTr1yy-rIYCtFL0aAyI3_f4gLwOaNfHwM&e= | Library Facebook ] _______________________________________________ Michlib-l mailing list -- michlib-l@liblists.org To unsubscribe send an email to michlib-l-leave@liblists.org