Coin Club Lending Library?

astrorat

Do any of your local coin clubs have an active lending library? If so, would you please post some basic information about how books are loaned (or send via PM)? Our local club mentioned developing a lending library and is looking for other clubs who have done something similar to see what works and what doesn't work. Thanks.

RedTiger

My local club in El Segundo, CA tried to start a library. I would call the library a flop. Most collectors that want a book can easily afford their own books. Few are going to part with hard to find books for a library. There is the problem of theft, vandalism that all libraries face.

What gets some use is a copy of the Red Book so people bidding in the auction can look up prices.

Thinking more about it, a few basic items such as a DVD, about getting started in coin collecting, might be useful to have to lend to new members and kids. A serious local library? It is hard to see it working. Numismatics is so wide and vast a field, that specialty books would see very little use. The general audience books are easily affordable for anyone with money to attend a club, pay dues and buy coins.

/edit to add: my club meets in a public library. Perhaps donating numismatic books to the library and having the public library deal with all the paperwork might be a much happier solution for all. A skunk might run off with books from the local coin club library, but far few will cross the line and do that to a public library.

illini420

I thought about starting a library for my club recently. I thought it might work better as sort of a virtual library where each member could prepare a list of books/journals they are willing to lend out to other club members and each member's list could be combined into a master list of what the club has available. Of course, if a member wanted to borrow an item, it would have to be coordinated in advance of the meeting so that the member owing the book would know to bring it to the next meeting. But I haven't gotten very far into the idea as I too was concerned about members damaging rare/valuable materials and how to address that issue. I thought about maybe requiring borrowers to put down a security deposit to borrow items, equal to the replacement value of the item (or a substantial portion thereof), but I'm not sure as many members would borrow items if they had to put down $50 or $100 or more up front to borrow them.

Would like to also know if there's a better way of doing this as I know some of our club members have some really great books. I borrow them when I need them as I generally know who has what, but that doesn't work for the rest of the membership. Also, I have probably 15 file boxes worth of books/journals about coins, including back issues of The Numismatist back to 1909 (not complete though), that aren't really doing anyone any good except for myself.

DaveG

The two clubs to which I belong don't have any permanent quarters, so neither has a library.

However, I understand that the Rochester (NY) Numismatic Association has (or had) one.