Karl Miller wrote:

>Sigh.  This is precisely what I have wanted to do.  I donate a substantial
>number of CDs (basically all that I receive).  However, the local public
>library turns up their nose at me; they will agree only to receive the
>discs so that they can sell them for cash.  ...

I am a public librarian and am responsible for ordering classical CDs.  It
is a weird thing, this business of donations.  I've never figured it out.
Libraries seem to like new things.  It's just easier, I guess.  Maybe they
don't like the idea of putting something "used" on the shelf--as if, like
a new car, a CD isn't used the minute it first leaves the building.  I'm
not averse to donations.  We don't seek them or get many donated CDs, but
I don't think we turn them down, either.  But many libraries would.  Then
again, one other library around here, one with a great CD collection, does,
and a lot of their really interesting stuff is comprised of donations.  I
come here not to explain Caesar, only to affirm that this weird attitude
toward donations does exist.

Roger Hecht