VHS Book Sale and Cleanout

Hey everyone, we’ve cleaned up and sorted the bookshelves at VHS, and for the next week or two, we’re offering the books to everyone on a by-donation, pay-what-you-want basis. All money raised is a donation directly to VHS (you can drop payment into the green “DONATIO” box).

We have a nice variety of books (they’re not all computery books!), and for convenience, I’ve sorted them into rough categories. We have two shelves of books regarding crafts, textiles, handywork, carpentry, etc. We also have books on robotics, computer game programming, simple electronics projects, physics, math, electrical engineering, and others. Here are photos of the book spines in their current state. Click on any photos to view larger; right-click to open in new tab and view even larger.

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This is part of our attempt to clean the space of bulky, rarely-used items, and the VHS mini-library definitely falls into that category. Many of these books are at that part of their life where they’re too old to be useful as references, but still too young to be considered antiques (although some might be!). Most of the books haven’t been used since we last moved over a year ago. The books that remain after the book sale will be donated or recycled; see below for more info.

Now for questions:

Q. I’m not a member; can I participate?
A. Yes! Come to our open night, Tuesdays at 7:30 pm. If you can’t make it on Tuesdays, post here and maybe a keyholder can let you in on another day.

Q. There’s a book I’d like, but I can’t come to the space this week.
A. Post here with the title of the book and the picture you see it in (they are numbered), and someone can put it aside (in the dropbox) for you.

Q. I want a book but I don’t want to pay anything.
A. That’s fine, it’s pay-what-you-want, and no one will be watching for how much you pay. We’d rather see these books go to someone who’ll use them. That being said, the money goes toward supporting the space, and any donation is greatly appreciated.

Q. But these books are useful! I can’t bear to let these go!
A. You are welcome to take any of these books home if you’d like to keep them, and a small donation to VHS is appreciated.

Q. Wait! I found a book that I think is important to have at VHS!
A. 1. Take it off the shelf, and a) take it home temporarily to ensure it doesn’t get lost, or b) find a place for it near the tools of which it’s useful (ex. amateur radio books in the ARC corner).
2. Post about it in this thread, with the name of the book and your proposed reason for keeping it at VHS.

Q. I don’t care about book X, but I think person Y might want it.
A. Try to contact person Y directly, and maybe take X home if person Y is unavailable. For example, I see @JohnC’s High School Electronics Notes Binder, so I’d like to let him know so he has the opportunity to retrieve it if desired.

Q. But I think it’s valuable that we have these books as a resource… if I take them home, then they’ll only be useful to me.
A. Then let’s make a virtual, distributed library! We could have an online service where people can list the books they own and are willing to lend or give away. As it currently stands, the books here are used so rarely that it’s hard to justify the space they take up.

Q. What will happen to the books that are left over?
A. The plan is to donate or recycle all remaining books. If you would like to volunteer with this process (a car would be nice), or have recommendations for where to send them, please post here and we’ll discuss it.

Q. What will happen with the bookshelves?
A. Not sure! They might be repurposed as non-book storage, or they might become available for sale. Post below if you have any interest in the matter.

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Woohoo!

The lounge area also looks not-gross for the first time ages :wink:

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Also, feel free to forward this to other potentially interested groups. This may encourage more people to check out the space and see what we’re about!

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I posted a version of this to Craigslist.

http://vancouver.craigslist.ca/van/bks/5424123706.html

Mark

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is there a copy of “Fahrenheit 451” somewhere in there?

Not that I could see, sorry.

To fork this us a little, what would be the feeling of having a garage sale
at the next SHHH where members bring things in and sell pay what you want
and organize a hackery pickup the next day? Might draw in some people in
for the open house part?

I have a couple old but serviceable computers I might be willing to unload
For The Cause, for example…

Anybody in at the Space this afternoon, who would be willing to let me in and peruse the shelves at will?

(put picture of Puss’nBoots, holding his hat and looking up here)

SDY

Sure, I will come in from 2-6pm, and might stay later.

@miststlkr, that’s a decent idea. Probably worth proposing in a new thread, or mentioning it again when discussion of the next SHHH comes up.

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I’d like the book “VoIP Telephony with Asterisk” - though it’s over 10 years old now…
If anyone is going through the books and it’s still there can they put it in the dropbox for me, thanks

Thanks Shane, I’ll drop by, around 15:30 or so.

SDY

Done! In the dropbox.

the following message for @hectorh

www.surplusshed.com (lots of lenses, lots of sales)

www.anchoroptics.com (the subsidiary of Edmunds)

SDY

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I’m not a VHS member (super interested but just observing for now), but there are some books I’m interested in. The MAKE magazine collections (picture 7) and the weaving & bookbinding stuff (picture 2).

Come down next Tues eve 7:30 pm till late to our open house and grab them. Maybe stick around and take a tour and meet all the other wonderful folks! :slight_smile:

Bump !

I bought everything I could… and then some. I am so out of space, I am thinking about setting up a small black hole with retrieval capabilities options for my second bedroom.

Was there any books on Quantum mechanics in the lot?

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Just a note that the book sale has been going well and we’ve had a decent amount of generous donations (including @JohnC who made a donation for his old highschool notebook! :D). The book sale is still on this week, but after this coming Tuesday Open House (tomorrow), we will be looking at donating or recycling the remaining books. If you have recommendations on where to bring them, or are willing to lend your beefy book-lifting arms or a vehicle, let us know!

tl;dr: This next open house is the last time we’ll for-sure have the remaining books at the space. Come down, sort through them, and encourage all the Open House visitors to do the same!

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Bump.

We got distracted by other things. Last chance! Come pick them up! Totally by donation.

I’m hoping to throw everything out by this weekend. If someone wants to donate them instead, I will gladly give them a hand.



Just to be clear - The Wii and other console stuff there is included in all of this. Donate what you think is fair, please take them away.
Also the floor standing lamps - @Jade I hear you were coveting them? They’re all yours! (If you lay claim to them or pick them up soon) e: Received word that they might be in the loading bay for pickup by garbage truck - grab them immediately!