tl;dl: I would like to donate some of VHS’s books to another organization.
Today I started unpacking the library and loading up the book shelves. As I was going through the books I made two piles. One that I put on the shelf of books that I thought that might be use of to someone, and another pile of books that I would like to donate to another organization that is not VHS. I used my best judgement when deciding what books go on the shelf and what ones go in the donate pile. My judgement might be different than yours, or just wrong.
I have not removed any of the books from the space. Please come down and pick though my discard pile and reclaim any of the books that you think VHS should keep.
Books I kept
Make Magazines
Any O’Reilly Media publication
Text books on Fundamentals of XXX
Projects books, For Example: Woodworking projects for XXX, Scroll saw projects. 1001 circuits
Most craft books, Knitting patterns, basket making,
etc…
Books I discarded
Programing for hardware that is older than 10 years. Example: Programing for the blackberry 1996
Learn about the future technology books that are older than 10 years.
Books for OS that are out of service and are older than 10 years. Win 95, etc…
internet indexes from the 90s. Before there was google this is the book we used.
Game programing books older then 10 years.
Library programing books older then 10 years.
Livestock health and maintenance.
Product manuals that are older than 2 years.
BBSing for fun and profit
etc…
Proposal:
We donate the books that probably won’t help people at VHS or with information that is readily accessible online to another organization that wants them.
This one jumps out at me - games books can generally be classified into a few groups - beginner/fluff books older than 10 years (or really, older than 3-4 usually), definitely. Gems, tech, reference, and math? Those don’t really change, and shouldn’t go - and more so, the older books are generally the ones about the fundamentals that newer books don’t really cover. Some of my favourite reference/math/animation books are from the early 90’s for instance.
I don’t know if it’d be a fit for the space but BitLit —
As someone opening a bookstore I can see how this can be exploited and I’ll have to restrain myself.
Personally I like to hang onto some dusty old tomes because they are like time capsules once they are completely beyond utility.
but most don’t, so have a firewood-ectomy.
Ahh… The good ol days… You kids and your fancy Interwebs… Why my first modem was 300 baud and wasn’t event Hayes compatible… You had to manually dial the phone then connect the modem…
I don’t want to get off topic but had to jump onto the BBS comment! I not only ran a BBS but wrote all the software myself for a BBC Micro (did they reach Canada?) when I was 15 years old. My modem was 1200/75 baud (1200 bits/sec download 75 bits/sec upload!) which was popular at the time for text services in the UK. Living in Northern Ireland, every phone call I made was a national call. My first quarterly phone bill after starting the service (and a very unhappy father) quickly ended everything! Good fun though while it lasted!
I think 1200/300 baud for me… Well, that was when we finally got a modem… Combined with the state of the art computer my parents got from the magazine they worked for.
