By Gus Saltonstall
A dumpster on West 76th Street near the corner of Central Park West turned into an unexpected trove of titles for the taking over the past few days, after the New-York Historical Society threw out hundreds of books.
The dumpster was filled with brand-new books, many that were still in their plastic wrapping, including presidential biographies, histories of the Revolutionary War, stories from the Civil Rights movement, and tales of immigration to New York.
“[I can’t believe] that the New-York Historical Society did this,” Upper West Sider Riva Atlas told West Side Rag. “How nice would it have been for the neighborhood if they put stuff neatly in boxes, and said neighbors please come. We’ve seen since COVID, people putting stuff out on their stoops, so I don’t blame them for wanting to clear out, but take five or 10 minutes to have your staff put things out nicely,” she added.
“Wow. We are literally tossing our history in the dumpster,” another person wrote about the discarded books under a Facebook post about the issue.
The New-York Historical Society, which was founded in 1804 as the city’s first museum, admitted to throwing out the books, but explained it as a “miscommunication.”
“The NYHistory Store needed to clear out its storage space. The intention was to discard a number of older, damaged books and send newer books to relocation,” Marybeth Ihle, a spokesperson for the museum, told the Rag. “Unfortunately, there was a miscommunication and some of the newer books were discarded. This certainly wasn’t our intention. Whenever possible, New-York Historical works to donate surplus books to libraries and local organizations.”
Ihle did not specify what the miscommunication was.
The books were thrown into the dumpster on 76th Street sometime between Friday and Saturday, and there were still some books left when West Side Rag visited the trash receptacle on Monday morning.
While multiple community members expressed their frustration over the books ending up in the dumpster, Upper West Siders found a way to make the best of it.
News of the discarded books made its way to an Upper West Siders Buy Nothing Facebook group, which serves as a platform for locals to give away items for free.
Members came to the dumpster to collect the books and organize them into more accessible piles, while continuing to let people know they were available.
“My estimate is I took out maybe 80 books and distributed them to members of the group — my apartment was basically a free bookstore yesterday!” Jamy Hsu, a member of the Buy Nothing group, told the Rag.
On Monday, the New-York Historical Society announced details surrounding the construction of a new wing of the museum, but it is unclear if the impending work was the reason for the needed storage clear out.
Other items found in the dumpster included maps, posters, magazines, and larger discarded pieces that looked connected to exhibits or store merchandise.
Here are more of the books and materials people were able to rescue from the dumpster, including photos of the materials still in the dumpster.
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Wow, what a waste. They could have given all these books away to students or schools.
exactly, our local public schools are in need of these
Given that most of the works pictured are adult level books, a school generally wouldn’t have any use for them.
We have local high schools. Surely they read adult level books.
Hahahahahahaha!
Hey Kindle, you destroy my eyes!
What’s so funny? Not everyone likes Kindle.
So true. And these books are likely not available in Kindle format.
This is no laughin matter.
Those posters are amazing! Wonder if they are originals or copies.
They are copies
I have an historical document relating to the building of Lincoln Center that I was going to donate. But now I’m having second thoughts.
From this article it looks like they knew the books had been discarded and yet did nothing to retrieve them.
Why not donate it to the library at Lincoln Center?
Exactly ,books should never go in the trash
Only if they are relevant to that library’s collection.
that is my take, also
The Historical Society was clearly lying about the “miscommunication.” How disgraceful that they didn’t want to take a little bit of time to give away all those books. They will never get another dime from me!
I wouldn’t necessarily jump to that conclusion… (Very easy to assume on these sites!) But someone made the executive decision to give the order to toss, and that is truly unfortunate.
Yeah.. they got caught so they had to come up with something nutty!! Miscommunication, yeah, right!!
Librarians always lie now when it comes to “weeding.” This sort of destruction is happening all over.
Jim C. I’m curious to know what you think libraries ought to do with books that no longer serve the needs of the community that uses the library. Just keep them on the shelves collecting dust?
They should notify the public that the books are no longer needed and ask any interested ppl to come and take the books of their choosing.
I think that when libraries have books that no longer serve their needs they should donate them to: schools, public libraries, the NYS prison system, or some other appropriate charitable or educational facility. In the case of the NYHS, they might also have put them on a giant table in the middle of their giant entry room with a sign that said “help yourself”, or ” here for the taking”. They could have called it “History Books Freecycle”. They could’ve advertised this free book cycle in the West Side Rag, for example! It might even have helped the NYHS’s business. Alternatively they could’ve had a minimal charge per book, let’s say between $1 and $5. What they should not have done is to have thrown them out and then insult the public by saying it was a “miscommunication”. That was very dumb. Did they really think Upper West Siders weren’t going to notice these books in this dumpster, or believe the “miscommunication” excuse ?
If they continually did that, they wouldn’t sell any books in their bookstore. People would just wait for free books like they wait for Zabar’s to reduce their kugel prices at the end of the day.
Our library in CA has library sales – why couldn’t they do that?
These are NOT library books. They were from the bookstore — surplus that didn’t sell.
I feel the same way.
Our disposal culture–why we’re going to bury ourselves in waste.
Does the Strand on Columbus buy used books? I’d walk them over there.
I don’t have a Facebook. Any other way of getting some of the books?
Winner of “most ironic comment of 2023.”
What’s ironic about it?
As a member of the Museum, this is really shocking to me, and terrifying. What if a “miscommunication” extended to the actual antique holdings of the Museum? I cannot fathom how anyone — even the maintenance crew — could be so unenlightened and unthinking as to discard items that are new, usable, or unopened, no matter what they are!? There is also NO excuse the Museum did not use the items themselves, for either the tax deduction inherent in donating the books and items elsewhere, or to hold an internal sale (for staff, patrons, members, etc.) to raise funds. I spent years as a co-captain of the annual bazaar of the Performing Arts Library at Lincoln Center. The bazaar ran for decades and the Library would de-acquisition everything it no longer felt it needed: duplicates, books, records, sheet music, playbills, donations from estates — you name it, we sold it. One year I bought all of Billy Rose’s ashtrays, and I still kick myself for not buying Toscanini’s gramophones. It was not only a way for the library to thin out what it no longer needed; but it gave the public an exciting public relations event. The Library stopped doing it in the 1990s, but there is no reason for others not to be as creative, even if the sale items are newer product from the Museum store, which is what this sounds like it was. With all the charities in New York, the library sales, and school programs (and immigrants!) clamoring for materials, I can’t believe this stuff wound up in a dumpster. Oh, boy. The Museum President better get ready for some tough questions.
As a former librarian i support a good weeding policy to make room for new materials. Space is finite. There are several companies that purchase books in bulk from libraries for resale. A win for libraries and book lovers
Want to talk about miscommunication action? The Historical Society is taking over 35 parking spaces on West 76th Street starting Thursday, 11/16 until Fall of 2025. What will this do to our beautiful block? Wreak havoc. But here’s the kicker. They’re taking up the parking spaces reserved for NBC’s media trucks for the Balloon Inflation coverage and the Thanksgiving Day Parade and NBC wasn’t informed. I can’t wait for the early-season fireworks come next week. The Historical Society has always been its own private neighborhood without thinking of the residents who live in the area. Let’s see what happens when residents start reporting them to the city for every infraction over the next 24 months.
It does show us who is running the museum now.
I tried buying the Theodore Roosevelt Statue from the Museum. I wanted to put it in front of my building. No Dice.
The Theodore Roosevelt statue removal was from the American Museum of Natural History one block North.
I agree. But weeding is rampant now. I find it especially ironic that they’re adding more space. and also claim that this was only supposed to be “older” material — like that somehow makes it ok!
They said “older, damaged” material. It’s not clear if the books intended to be discarded were part of the collection or for for sale, but since I see multiple copies of books in the photos, I’m thinking the latter. Selling damaged books is hard. Even giving them away is hard. It’s possible that this was the least bad solution for clearing them out.
As a fellow museum member, I completely agree. This is unbelievable and so disturbing, especially from a respected historical institution like NYHS. It doesn’t seem possible that anyone there could let this happen. Using “miscommunication” as an excuse doesn’t cut it. I’ll be among those asking questions.
Coincidentally, I worked at the Lincoln Center Performing Arts Library years ago and volunteered at the annual bazaar. What a terrific event that was!
Thank you to the reporter who discovered this! The fact the Historical Society didn’t go back and retrieve everything after it was revealed it was dumped – shameful. Good investigative work WSR!
In fact, they immediately had the dumpster full of books removed as of 11/14 in the afternoon, so no one would see.
This is where my membership $$ go?
I go to the New York Historical Society a few timrs a year to see new exhibits I am interested in. There are sometimes more staff in the building than visitors. Since the new building at the American Museum of Natural History, opened attendance has dropped further. I guess part of the problem is its name. If you were an english speaking tourist from another country what would the name, “New York Historical Society” mean to you? Right, people in overstuffed armchairs discussing New York history among themselves. Nothing for the tourist.
And then there’s the hyphen! “New-York Historical Society”….. I think that can go by the wayside. I’ve seen some good shows there, but it seems they could do more. As for the name, it’s d support a change as well. In fact, recent shows have had only tangential connections to NY. How about the American Museum of Cultural History. Still have NYC-specific exhibits but open up the mission. At least, they should consider rotating the permanent collection (a floor of Tiffany lamps—that’s a lot) and offfering more, and more interesting, films in order to keep the museum vital and relevant. Well. It will be interesting to see what the renovation is about.
Tourists aren’t interested in learning the history of New York. It doesn’t photograph for a selfie as well as the dinosaur exhibit or some landmark. Most tourists are very shallow thinkers.
I wonder how the Museum of the City of NY does as a tourist draw. They have exhibitions of contemporary artists’ work there that are very interesting— I haven’t seen that much at NYHS.
I’m not boycotting the museum until they do a make good on this totally idiotic move. Utterly shameful.
They should now go out of their way to make an awesome book donation. Even if it means going into their pocket to buy new books.
To see a historical society do this is about a brutal a sin as there is for them. Maybe change is needed there now
*i’m now boycotting… pardon my typo, please
I was just about to join the New York historical society, but now I’m really thinking about it. Miscommunication happens, but someone should’ve been smart enough to look at the condition of the books. 45%. I’m really disappointed, because this is a wonderful institution.
Jamy Hsu, you rock! Thanks for grabbing all those books so we could salvage them. From dumpster to our book shelves–because of you!
Okay, Historical Society, what kind of nonsense was this????? Shame on you. If you are going to discard all those books, you should do it responsibly — students, schools and universities might have wanted them. Second hand bookstore on Bwy. Also people in the nabe. what were you thinking? Not much, I think. Shame on you.
A Dumpster Diver’s Dream
The UWS Buy Nothing group has really deteriorated in the last year or so. The admins are arbitrary and squirrelly, and they go onto private property and pull garbage out of bags and “organize” it and basically leave it on the ground, so it isn’t picked up by sanitation. The Free Stuff UWS group is better.
Example, please? I find the UWS BNG to be excellent, especially the admins.
Utterly disgusting, wasteful and disgraceful. I am a member of this museum and am embarrassed for them. Miscommunication my ass. So furious I may not renew!
Materials for the Arts takes these books as well as any local historiial society could use the books as fund raisers. No one could be so foolish as at dump the books in a dumpster. Bless our neighbors who kow where the treasures are buried.
Miscommunication? Honestly. Shame on them.
It would have been a wonderful book sale for the Historical Society.
Presumably, the books *were* for sale — in the shop, at some point. Perhaps these were old inventory that wasn’t selling well. For all of you who are outraged, when was the last time you bought a book *from the Historical Society*? For those of you saying, just donate them; when was the last time you tried to donate books to a library or school? It’s not as simple as you think.
Completely correct! I buy books from N-YHS frequently and find that the shop often has too many copies that don’t sell. Many libraries are not taking donations now, as they are in the process of weeding through their own collections.
Just visited the museum last weekend. Would have gladly taken a few books off their hands if I’d only known.. They also could have left a bin for NY Marathon runners to take as souvenirs.
Yes the museum should have taken a few minutes to figure out a way to dispose of the materials in a more constructive way if only to have avoided this kerfluffle but have any of you tried to give away a lot of books? NO ONE WANTS THEM. The NYHS has mounted many fabulous shows in the past and I for one forgive them this misstep. Especially since I too have tried to give away books!
https://www.lovetoknow.com/life/lifestyle/where-can-i-donate-used-books-new-york-city
I have been donating to libraries for years. They take books.
Why not donate to prisons and schools and libraries…. Or supportive housing facilities—some of the I’ve volunteered in have zero resources.
See above link. I agree, there are many places in NYC where these books could have been donated if anyone at the Historical Society WAS ACTUALLY MOTIVATED or CARED!! I recently became a member, now I too will be sending feedback to this institution.
Books not sold new in bookstores are returned to the publisher and usually pulped. This is especially true of newish hardbacks.
The books at the historical society should have been sorted and given away, with a prior announcement.
But I highly doubt that there aren’t other copies of these books widely available.
As a librarian, I agree the books shouldn’t have been discarded but rather given away to the public or donated to another institution. That’s what I do. There are a number of charities that accept books to distribute to underserved communities in the U.S. and around the world. Better World Books is the most famous of these, but there are many others.
However, I understand how it could happen, and have sympathy for the staff. You can see from the pictures that a lot of these appear to be boxes of duplicates. NYHS probably has the them in its collection already, or the librarians have deemed this or that title inappropriate to its mission. Publishers, authors, bookstores with overstock, etc., send books unbidden to libraries all the time; as do individuals who understandably but misguidedly don’t want to discard their personal collection so ship them off to their local library without checking with them first. Every library I’ve ever worked in has been understaffed and underfunded, so the situation can become overwhelming. One person after another puts off making a decision about what to do with rejects, and then somebody on high gives an order that a certain storage room had to be cleared out by Monday, the professional librarians have gone home for the weekend, the task falls to a student hired as a page who just didn’t know better. Whatever. Who knows. Mistakes happen, as do unfortunate decisions made out of haste, frustration, or, yes, perhaps even laziness or incompetence.
Anyway, it will be an opportunity for the Historical Society to review and revise its policies for the future. I wish them well! It is a fantastic organization vital to all of us who love New York City. Please support them by visiting their wonderful exhibitions, using its extraordinary archives (including fascinating digital materials you can enjoy from home), telling others about them, making monetary donations…and, dare I say it, trying to give them the benefit of a doubt even when stories like this one come out. All you have to do is walk through the place to recognize that somewhere there behind those walls are fabulous, dedicated librarians, archivists, curators, historians, and preservationists working away behind those walls, whose names and accomplishments you’ll never know and (admit it) have probably never even wondered about but who are as dismayed by this news as we are.
Another vote for Better World Books, which is not only a charity but a great re-seller of used and for out-of-print books.
Perry, I appreciate your perspective and generosity. I would also hope that in the future, this organization, along with others would at the very least, reach out to some members of either Buy Nothing groups or known organizations that would welcome great unwanted stuff. Countless amounts of unused holiday candy and various materials simply get tossed out. Ditto for stores closing. There are always people who want or need things and will happily give them a new home!
I have a question for you as a librarian: Can you explain this modern managerial enthusiasm for “weeding”? Some materials I understand getting rid of, but why so much? The NYPL branches are all full of half-emoty shelves.
I can give my two cents as a librarian. The reason it’s called weeding is that it’s a gardening metaphor. If you gets rid of the weeds (i.e. the books that are damaged, inaccurate, not circulating) you give room for the flowers to grow and your overall library collection can “bloom” i.e. circulate. I’m not saying the weeded books are bad content wise, just that for whatever reason, the community that the library serves are no longer using those materials.
The general rule of thumb is Texas CREW standards where there’s a specific time period for certain materials to be considered relevant to your library’s collection. For adult fiction a title needs to be circulated at least once in three years. If you have a smaller collection, then you adjust the numbers. At my library, if a book hasn’t circulated once in five years, then it is considered for weeding. Several factors can prevent a book from being weeded such as it being a classic, part of an otherwise well circulated series, a prominent author, local author, etc. Weeding time periods are shorter for nonfiction titles, especially if it’s in a topic that changes often like technology, medicine, or politics. And books can be weeded at anytime for condition. While every effort is made to repair books that circulate, sometimes a book is just too far gone to fix.
After a book is weeded, a lot of libraries donate those books to their local Friends of the Library group if they themselves don’t have a designated book sale room. In the case of my library, eligible books get donated to the Friends. If the book doesn’t sell with the Friends, then we either send that book off for recycling or it gets discarded. A lot of people in the comments here are mentioning that books shouldn’t be thrown away, but in reality, libraries often gets boxes and boxes of donations of books that are wildly out of date or damaged. We can’t keep them all and often the paid services mentioned above or services like Better World Books have finicky requirements about the donations they will take. Last time we tried to donate books that didn’t sell at our annual book sale, the place we tried to donate to wouldn’t take books with library markings on them. That obviously was a non starter for us.
There are also the books that come in that are disgusting. Even if it’s a sensitive book like a Bible, if the title has mold or bugs in it, then we absolutely cannot introduce those items to our library building without risking an infestation. And that type of donation happens more frequently than one might think.
I will also say that it may seem like there’s a “sudden fascination” with weeding because the library hasn’t had time or the man power to set up a regular weeding schedule. Weeding should be constant and regular (like gardening) and should also keep pace with the purchasing of books. If weeding is done properly in a library, you may not see any noticeable shift in the number of titles on offer unless an entire collection is being weeded. For example, a library stops offering VHS or some other type of format of books. Many CD audiobook collections are being phased out slowly because less people have devices to play CDs these days.
And lastly I will say that what has occurred in the article doesn’t seem to be completely an instance of weeding. Few of these books have ownership markings and there are several duplicates. It looks like discards from a retail space, which bookstore do all the time if the cost of sending a book back to the publisher exceeds the cost of recycling/discarding it (or if the publisher refuses to receive the book). Big book stores will actually strip the covers off of some paperbacks rather than send them back to the publisher. (This is what the little S in a triangle means on the back of a book.) These stripped books typically get pulped because doing so is cheaper than the cost of shipping them back. Many of the titles included in the picture wouldn’t have been eligible for addition to my library based on age alone, so if these were donated to my library, they would have gone straight into the book sale. We make this clear to people who donate books and have criteria for what we will and won’t take as donations. We take the names and phone numbers down of any patrons who want to take back what we can’t use or we get explicit consent that we can discard those items to the trash. I obviously don’t know the specific situation here, but I assume they are coming at this as a retail operation since it doesn’t look like these items would have been exhibited.
Folks: A lot of people are really sore about the way they tossed out new books instead of giving them away. The New York Historical Society is pay what you wish on Friday from 6-8. Pay them a visit. But don’t scold the guards or the people at the ticket desk. It was not their decision.
One of the discarded books is “Harriet Jacobs: A Life” was written by my aunt Jean Fagan Yellin.. Dr. Yellin devoted most of her professional life (and much of her personal life as well) to “uncovering” and celebrating the written work of Harriet Jacobs: “Incidents In The Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself”. Dr. Yellin was awarded the Gilder Lehrman Frederick Douglass Prize in 2004 for her work and all of her research and academic papers now reside at the University of Michigan. It is sad and infuriating that my aunt’s life work meant so little to the NY Historical Society .
I’m sure it’s painful to see a copy of a beloved relative’s work in a dumpster. The Society ought to have been more sensitive about how these items were discarded. That being said, I checked their library’s catalog and they do have a copy in their collection. I suspect the items in the dumpster were unsold stock from their bookstore.
I love the NYHS, but I’m very disappointed in them over this. Total lack of awareness about what a book loving neighborhood the UWS is.
My guess is that someone gave this project to a young intern or assistant who arrogantly assumed that because they and their peers operate entirely electronically, everyone else should, and they threw everything out without a thought.
These could have gone to:
The St. Agnes library book sale
Housing Works
Strand (downtown – I don’t think the Columbus ave one takes books)
A Goodwill (our local one closed, but there are others)
it’s hard to comprehend, even the guys incharge of doing the tossing out should have gone back to argue….ARE YOU SURE ? IS THERE NO OTHER OPTION ?
Well, if they were meant for storage, why isn’t the NYHS trying to retrieve them? Sounds mighty fishy and very sad. Glad people are giving many of the books good homes.
I have to say I like reading WSR more since Gus joined their team. Good topics, great coverage.
Shame, shame, shame on them!
“Miscommunication” – hah!
Can’t wait for their next appeal for $$$$$$$.
I’m surprised no one here has called for renaming it the New York Hysterical Society. This incident plays right into the UWS psyche.
Most these books are all autographed!!
I picked up a few boxes and already sold half of them at Lincoln Center! I made a good fortune, thank you we through about.
Happy this was caught in time! What other American Horror Story is next from this historical society?
Wait a minute. Did anyone notice that they ordered a whole dumpster? Miscommunication? Looks like someone wanted to cull everything. And even if this was a so called glitch in some facility action, how many people stood by and didn’t say anything? That was a massive undertaking. Miscommunication? I dunno.
Thanks for pointing that out. A whole dumpster was ordered for a massive amount of books. Not just the small amount mentioned by the NYHS staff member interviewed. “Miscommunication” is a lie; it was intentional.
I am not a book burner, but isn’t the world sort of awash in books? You go to Costco and you see stacks and stacks of boring books. I have three or four very heavy storage units filled with computer ‘how to’ books that I can easily find the same info on the Internet. It’s really time to stop publishing paper books. Nobody really wants to buy them, except for college kids who are forced to by course requirements. I have a Tom Clancy paperback novel that I only use to prop open a window.
As a librarian, I can tell you books are still greatly in demand for a variety of reasons, but mostly because people enjoy reading for fun! Boring computer manuals are different than a gripping novel…
Love my books! Not a college kid.
They Museum could have just done a garage type sale. For example Pay as you chose for each book minimum $2.
I think the “miscommunication” was that the dumping was communicated to the public. Clearly that is the case since they Did Not try to retrieve their “error”/mistake.
I can imagine the museum wanted to clear up precious storage space for new items coming in. It’s cheaper to throw away than renting out additional storage space for sure.
At columbus circle or somewhere with people around, voluntieers could just hand out free copies. That way it advertises the awareness of U.S history in whatever the viewpoints. It’s our tax money.
Right on the money. Truth.
Here’s my take As a former library director at one of the largest libraries in the US. Most likely a reasonable decision to deselect these items. However, libraries would offer these books to a local library/institution/general public. Worse thing you can do is to throw them in the trash where they are visible to the general public. Probably decision made to dump them; however, they should have been in sealed boxes. Very very bad PR. The last thing you want are people yelling that these are valuable books (which they do not appear to be) and why in good would you ever discard them
Throwing culture in the trash is a sin and shows a very high level of ignorance
It so sad that books were thrown out. Looks like everybody wants to get rid of our history! Poor excuse of miscommunication! This is a great country and people are looking for ways to destroy it and destroy our history. Just like they tried to destroy the Native American Indian story!
Holy Conspiracy Theorist Batman! Calm down…one entity throwing away books doesn’t destroy history.
Even the Joker would agree that in this case they made one mistake too many
A “miscommunication”? Really? What a blemish on the New York Historical Society. I have long been a member and love going there, either on a whim, or on a planned visit, I have always left enriched. Throwing out books is so antithetical to everything for which they stand.
I agree with all that there are plenty of organizations that could have taken the books. As demonstrated by the cultish love of Donald Trump and their efforts to destroy the American educational system, there are plenty of people in America now who would be well served to read a few more books and learn some history.
And worst case, couldn’t the NYHS at least made some effort to recycle the books rather than stick them in the trash?
You know who could have used those books? Prisons!! Prison libraries always struggle to buy books. What laziness by the NYHS!! It’s is not the sloppy put-it-on-the-sidewalk-so-it-turns-into-trash-world! Sell, donate, dispose.
Will certainly keep this in mind next time they request donations , , , I’ll believe their request is ‘miscommunication.’
I’m going to focus on the positives here. Thank goodness the books were noticed, and it sounds like many of them were rescued and given to good homes. Great, free books ended up going to a lot of people who will treasure them. There’s at least a little bit of lemonade in this tale of a big fat lemon. Had I been in the city at the time, I would have loved adding these titles to my home library!
They deserve ZERO donation funds if this is what happens to it.
Their loss, our gain — Amazing how quickly we are regressing into a generation of idjits. How could anyone given this order to dispose of new books not question it?
Given the current state of intellectual regression in this country – I am not surprised. A few years ago at my job (we publish) I saw someone throw an open book – pages down – on top of a spill to sop it up.
This is probably part of that new wave of erasing history and replacing it with “convenient truths”. This society has failed to recognize that, if you forget the history, it is bound to repeat itself.
I’m concerned by the number of people who don’t realize that the scholarship in books about history becomes outdated REALLY fast. I’m supposing that is the case here, and if so, it would be irresponsible on their part to distribute. (The “librarians” posting here don’t know that??) I think a more reasonable question is why weren’t these recycled vs. thrown in the dumpster. Besides, space is finite, and at some point—whether from the original source or the place they get donated to—the books are going to be thrown out. Pass by a school building at the end of the academic year and see how many books, desks, chalkboards, etc. are tossed away. It’s irrational to think that every thing can/should be saved. None of those looked like priceless irreplaceable titles, either. There are people dying in the world, and then, there’s this.
These books were from the store on the first floor, not the library. The store bought numerous copies of a lot of books and not all of them sold. No one did an analysis of which books should be discarded because of outdated scholarship. The museum handled their leftover books in an awfully gruff way.