> From: "K C Harrison" <[log in to unmask]>
> Date: Wed, 5 Jul 2000 14:35:17 +0100
> To: "Stuart Brewer" <[log in to unmask]>
> Subject: Re: bestsellers
>
> Stuart
> I read your email on bestsellers and I write to let you know that many
> years ago the Canterbury Public Library of Christchurch NZ had a rental
> collection of popular fiction. It is ten years since I was in NZ and I
> cant say whether they still maintain it. Suzanne Tunnicliff is now in
> charge there and you could email her for info.
> Ken Harrison, Eastbourne.
>
> ----------
>> From: Stuart Brewer <[log in to unmask]>
>> To: Andrew Sandeman <[log in to unmask]>; lis pub libs
> (mail) <[log in to unmask]>
>> Subject: re: bestsellers
>> Date: 04 July 2000 08:36
>>
>> In the late 60s, Kensington & Chelsea Libraries dealt with bestseller
> waiting lists by hiring copies from Harrods lending (ie. subscription)
> library, a couple of miles down the road.
>>
>> As far as I can recall, the Libraries' subscription payment to Harrods
> was straightforward viz. £x per volume for x months; and we simply hired as
> many copies as were needed to keep down the waiting lists. For issuing to
> readers, a K&C date label was paper-clipped inside the front cover.
>>
>> Readers reserved titles in the usual way, and paid the normal reservation
> fee. It was a good flexible arrangement that suited all parties, and hiring
> from Harrod's was cheaper for the Libraries than buying what would soon
> have become unwanted stock. The costs of transporting the hired books from
> such a nearby source, via the Harrods and the Libraries' delivery vans,
> must have been minimal and probably hidden.
>>
>> Of course, the Libraries did also purchase bestseller titles for stock,
> but even the Harrods arrangment didn't prevent the occasional overstocking
> and consequent surplus copies on the basement shelves - Nancy Mitford's The
> Sun King was one example.
>>
>> Stuart.
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