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  • 1.  Where to give away my library

    Posted 10-03-2024 20:29

    I am a longtime member of the ASA.  Now retired and starting to downsize.

    I know this question has come up before, but I have not found the answer.

    I own several hundred classical statistical text books.  Hodges and Lehman.  Box and Tiao.  Cochran and Cox.  Box, Hunter, and Hunter. Kalbfleish and Prentice.  Bishop, Feinberg, and Holland.  Little and Rubin.  Bloomfield.  Box and Draper.  Feller.  And on and on and on.

    I would like to give them to some organization.  I would imagine there are developing statistics programs all around the world.  Cuba? South America?  Africa? Asia?

    Can anyone suggest how I could find out about programs that would like to have a quality collection of the great statistical texts?

    What are other retired and downsizing statisticians doing with their professional libraries?

    -Bill Kahn

     



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    William Kahn
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  • 2.  RE: Where to give away my library

    Posted 10-04-2024 11:55

    I suggest contacting a local college or university and offering to give them to students or faculty.

    The cost of shipping them abroad is probably greater than the value there, given that the world is increasingly connected and people can view online resources from anywhere.

    You can also try to sell them, e.g. https://www.powells.com/sell-books. I think you'll be disappointed in what they are willing to pay, but that is a reality check for the value of physical books now.



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    Tim Hesterberg
    Staff Data Scientist
    Instacart
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Where to give away my library

    Posted 10-04-2024 15:13

    Welcome to retirement downsizing. AS to donating textbooks. I recommend finding out whether MSU (link below)  can arrange the donations to the University of Havana in Havana Cuba.  I have attended the annual jazz festival in Havana on several occasions. That's a completely different story for another forum.  When traveling I would bring a load of text books in a suitcase for donation. N.B. Yes it is perfectly legal to travel to/from Cuba. And a past ASA president, Marie Davidian organized an official ASA visit To Cuba. Our statistician contact, was Dr. Carlo Bouza in the OR department at U Havana. Dr. Bouza  retired and I haven't met his successor. I have also met the head of the Cuban Census (my apology for not remembering his name) - and  donated some textbooks to him.  One time (of several) and after I had stepped through the airport (Jose Marti)  exit gate, the Cuban security, requested I return and open the (very heavy) suitcase. The guard  began inspecting the books one by one. .  Despite my not speaking Cuban-Spanish I was able to flip to an equation laden page :) and explain to the guard the books (and equations) were for the  U Havana library .He smiled and waved me on my way.   I don't have any plans for a trip in the next year or two.  A VERY BIG reason to donate to U Havana. The average monthly income for a Cuban is about $20 (US)/month. Technical statistical Books on the used or new market  may easily by $50 and more. Cuba does little or no international trade , aside from Venezuela and don't have ready access to the major textbook publishers or the cash ($ US) to pay for the books

    MSU has an arrangement for donating medical texts, I hope they can help you. 

    https://msutoday.msu.edu/news/2013/donating-textbooks-to-cuban-students



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    Chris Barker, Ph.D.
    Past Chair
    Statistical Consulting Section
    Consultant and
    Adjunct Associate Professor of Biostatistics
    www.barkerstats.com


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    "In composition you have all the time you want to decide what to say in 15 seconds, in improvisation you have 15 seconds."
    -Steve Lacy
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Where to give away my library

    Posted 10-05-2024 09:18

    Small world, indeed:

    Regarding Bill's question, the Juarez Lincoln Marti Int'l Education Project (https://web.cortland.edu/matresearch/) has donated hundreds of textbooks to universities in Latin America in the 1990s and 2000s, either taking them ourselves in our trips to provide faculty development workshops or via USPS M-Bag program, now defunct. After that, as stated by Tim, postage cost is too large. We tried announcing in our Quarterly Bulletin that we were taking books to the ASA that we would give to members coming to the annual JSM meeting. But this method worked poorly, as space/weigh in their airplane tickets was limited. It could be tried again ... Indeed, the colleges and statistics organizations of Latin American and African countries would need them badly. The thing is getting them there ...

    Regarding Chris' input, I am a 1973 graduate in Mathematical Statistics from the University of Havana, and Carlos Bouza was my sampling methods professor, and is still my colleague (as we have met several times in Mexico, when we both go there for teaching stats). Definitely thirds world country Universities would welcome good stats books. It occurs to me that contacting the countries' Embassies cultural affairs officers might provide useful. I sent many stats books to Mexico and the Dominican Republic, through the courtesy of the US Embassy Cultural Affairs officers there, when I was working as a Fulbright.

    I can tell you that, in the 1960s and 1970s when I was a student in Cuba, and later, when I was a Fulbright in Latin America, lack of good books was a real constraint.

    God bless you/jorge.



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    Jorge L. Romeu
    Emeritus SUNY Faculty
    Adjunct Professor, Syracuse U.
    https://web.cortland.edu/romeu/
    https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jorge_Romeu
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Where to give away my library

    Posted 10-07-2024 12:04

    If any of the books are old enough (anything pre 1928 and large fraction of pre 1978) I'd recommend sending an email to an R1 with a good digital library department and asking if they could scan it  - they can make electronic copies available to the whole world for free, and they ought to have plenty of work-study students to do it. (UC Berkeley is one that comes to my mind). Also you'd get a tax deduction.

    I would have recommended the Internet Archive a year ago, but wait until the lawsuits shake out for now.

     



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    Neal Fultz
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    Original Message


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