Milwaukee PL’s British Patents
Going Once, Going Twice on eBay
In an effort to regain a mile of space shelf, the Milwaukee Public Library started offering part of its collection of British patent volumes from 1878 to 1907 on July 3 for a minimum bid of $5 on eBay.
By the end of the week, the highest bid was up to $56.99 on a 1900 volume; all the other bids were higher than the minimum. If these continue to sell, more of the 3,200 volumes from that period will be auctioned. In addition, 13,000 volumes from 1907 onward were sold for $1 each to anyone who picked them up at the library before July 8. Volumes before 1878 will be kept as rare books, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported June 30.
The collection has become an archival albatross. More than 90 institutions the library contacted—including the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, which donated the patents 50 years ago—did not want it. With much of the information available online, the collection was consulted only 10 times in the past year.
Posted July 10, 2000.
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