Those of you who are familiar with our TIES system will know about The Drudgery Eliminator. We’ve recently discovered a service that will help bookworms and book collectors achieve this goal.
Have you accumulated a fair number of books over the years? Are they overflowing your shelves, and you just have no idea what to do with them all? Well, before simply dumping them off at the local library, hoping they can make use of most of them, consider having a “library assessment,” a thorough evaluation of the history and value of all the books in your collection. Services like this are provided by people like Craig Olson at Artisan Books & Bindery, located on the island of Islesboro, Maine. The purpose of the assessment is to identify the market value of a collection so the client can make informed decisions about what to do with it. Here’s how it works:
- Craig makes a house call to see each personal library, and takes an inventory of all of the books in a collection.
- He is then able to research and create an itemized list of the significant books and their current market value.
- He composes detailed reports containing potential options for the future use and distribution of the collection, along with how to appraise them for estate planning purposes.
You may be surprised by the hidden treasures that could be resting on your shelves. Craig recently assessed a client’s library of more than 1,000 books, pleasantly surprising the client with the news that she had $175,000 of value right under her nose! Library assessments can help clients understand which books to sell, which books they shouldn’t live without, and which books to bequeath to loved ones.
Craig has been providing this service for years. His love of books started early, when he was a young boy growing up on a dairy farm in Wisconsin. He’s had a love for rare books, in particular, due to their extensive histories. Craig has the tools and information to tackle the chore of maintaining your library; what could take a layman weeks to finish might only take Craig and Artisan Books & Bindery a few days. He often finds treasures, such as signed books from famous authors, limited editions, and rare books. Whatever the book, Craig and Artisan Books & Bindery have the resources to trace its history.
Don’t be immobilized by the size of your book collection! Let a library assessor put your mind at ease and show you how wonderful and bountiful your library truly is. With good organization and structure, any library can be well maintained and organized to make future distributions simple, and keep your bookshelves clutter-free!