Your Old Book

I always enjoy stories like this one.  It makes me excited for the other hidden secrets that shall reveal themselves in time.  

110 years ago a man named Charles H. Hackley donated a stack of books to his local library. The library Incorporated the books into their collection and then shelved them, storing one book, already 50 years old in a  glass storage case on the library's second floor where rare and fragile books were kept where it was eventually forgotten. "In 1999, library personnel started going through the books in that case, [and] discovered the Book of Mormon." According to the Muskegon Chronicle, "It was one of 5,000 books printed in 1830 by Joseph Smith, founder of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, after he said an angel named Moroni guided him to gold tablets documenting the teachings and lives of ancient tribes."  The book is likely to fetch around $70,000. Talk about a gold mine!

Ever wonder if you have a valuable book hidden in the far reaches of your attic or basement. It is possible. Many of the rare books that come on the market today are books were simply overlooked for a few generations. But how to know?  

A great place to start is by reading a small publication found on the Rare Books and Manuscripts Section  site called , Your Old Books.  It will teach exactly what makes a book rare and how you can go about figuring out the potential value of your item.  The number one rule: demand that is greater than the supply. You could have the only copy of a book in existence, but if no one wants it...well, then no one freakin' wants it. 

If you read through this document and you are still convinced that you might have discovered a gold mine, then its time to start doing some research. Sites like ABAA.org and abebooks.com, can give you an idea of how many copies of a book are currently being offered for sale.  

If you are now nearly willing to bet your pets life that you have a book that could pay off all your students loans and still leave enough money for a down payment on your dream house, then its time to contact a book seller. Don't bother going to your local library, it is against the law for them to tell you how much your book is worth. 

Good luck, and be sure to report back to Luminous when you strike gold.

The right to read.

Politics is not something that I have ever brought to the pages of Luminous before, but this story isn't just politics, it is about books and politics and therefore I feel confident that the story fits well to luminous' mission.  That is: anything related to books.  

Sarah Palin has been the talk of the town for a whole week now.  A few disturbing things have come to our attention about Mrs. Palin but this bit of news takes the cake for all of us who have dedicated our lives to the right for intellectual freedom. 

Shortly before becoming mayor Ms. Palin approached librarian, Mary Ellen Emmons, at the Wasilla town library about the possibility of banning some books, which books Mrs. Palin would not say.  Anne Kilkenny, a Democrat "who said she attended every City Council meeting in Ms. Palin’s first year in office, said Ms. Palin brought up the idea of banning some books at one meeting. 'They were somehow morally or socially objectionable to her,' Ms. Kilkenny said."(NYT.)

Mrs. Emmons, of course resisted all efforts at censorship, in accordance with the Library Bill of Rights. And how did Mrs. Palin respond to not getting her way? She fired Ms. Emmons shortly after taking office.  Mrs. Palin under estimated her constituencies, who made a great show of support for the librarian in question, and she was untimely given her job back. 

So what is the big deal here?

Our whole system of government was based on the idea that the purpose of the state was to preserve individual liberties, not to dictate them. The founders uniformly despised many practices in England that compromised matters of individual conscience by restricting freedom of speech. Freedom of speech – the right to talk, write, publish, discuss – was so important to the founders that it was the first amendment to the Constitution – and without it, the Constitution never would have been ratified.

How then, can we claim that the founders would support the restriction of access to a book that really is just about an idea, to be accepted or rejected as you choose? If the library is doing its job, there are lots of books in the collection that people won't agree with; there are certainly many that I object to. Library collections don't imply endorsement; they imply access to the many different ideas of our culture, which is precisely our purpose in public life. The best way to know your stance on an issue after all is to have a grasp of the opposing view point.  Libraries, of course, provide evidence that not everybody agrees with each other; but that's true, isn't it?