The Huntley (Ill.) Area Public Library District put its old library on the cyberblock for eight days, then sold it June 8 in an auction held partly on the Web and then, in the last hour, live at the new library. The bid4real Web site featured a virtual tour of the 1,500-square-foot building.
The winning bid of $238,000 came from an ophthalmologist who plans to open an eye-care center on the site, the Chicago Sun-Times reported June 9. He entered his bid the traditional way, by signaling the auctioneer. (Only one of the three bids came via the Web.) The library board, which had turned down a high bid of $223,000 in a conventional auction in November 1999, will consider the offer June 14.
The library district, formed in 1989, had bought the building, then a dentist’s office, in 1992. The library moved to its newly built home, about a mile from the old one and 10 times its size, last July. Director Virginia Maravilla told AL that circulation has tripled each month since then—it currently stands at about 10,000 items a month—and that being in a new building has helped. “We had a good collection in the old building, but it was not perceived as such by the community,” she said.
Posted June 12, 2000.