What % of library books are/have never been checked out?

[Exapno_Mapcase]

While researching for my book on the history of robots, I went to the rare book book of my local university library because they had an extremely rare copy of a 19th century boy’s weekly magazine about an inventor’s Steam Man. It was printed on newsprint and quite fragile. I took it into the reading room and started taking notes. I turned the page and was lost. Took me a moment to realize I was reading page 4 instead of page 2. The copy had never been cut. I had to bring it back. There was only a student at the desk and she had to find a librarian to open it up, which meant I had to come back at another date.

When I did, I went back to the reading room and excitedly turned the page. And was lost again. Sure enough, I was on page 4. The librarian dutifully cut the side that had been folded. But not the top of the page. I took the still unreadable copy back to the desk. Where a different librarian used the edge of a business card to cut it.

No collector would do that to a book, since modern collecting is all about getting copies in as close shape to the first copy ever printed as possible. But for a library an uncut book is unresearchable and research is their business. The edge of a stiff card is perfectly acceptable as a knife in such a situation. Ragged edges were the norm in those days and a perfect sharp cut was unnecessary overkill.

[Derleth]

@Chronos

And if you bought a book but had no reason to read it at first, it might stay that way on your bookshelf until you do want to read it.

Reminds me of a passage in The Great Gatsby which would likely be utterly lost on most modern adults, let alone the teens the novel is pitched at these days:

“See!” he cried triumphantly. “It’s a bona-fide piece of printed matter. It fooled me. This fella’s a regular Belasco. It’s a triumph. What thoroughness! What realism! Knew when to stop, too—didn’t cut the pages. But what do you want? What do you expect?”

This is, of course, a visitor describing a book in Gatsby’s library: It’s an actual book, but it hasn’t been cut. Gatsby owns books, but he doesn’t pretend he reads them. The whole thing is as artificial as a stage play, much like the rest of Gatsby’s life, but he knows when enough’s enough, much like Belasco, a famous playwright and play producer who was known for the realism of his play productions.

[Thudlow_Boink]

I remember the teacher explaining that when we read The Great Gatsby in sophomore high school English (and yeah, I don’t think any of us would have understood it on our own). ETA: This is the reason I know what it means to cut the pages of a book.

[Elendil_s_Heir]

@clairobscur

Just slip a bitcoin in the electronic copy, then.

You nutty kids…