WATERVILLE -- It's a story sure to make book lovers gasp: Colby College's Miller Library plans to dispose of 40,000 volumes.

And it's true -- sort of.

The venerable library atop Mayflower Hill will reduce its collection by that magnitude, but dispose, in this case, is not meant in the throw-away sense.

Instead, the books removed from Miller Library's collection of nearly half-a-million print volumes will go to Better World Books, an online bookseller that has developed a multimillion dollar business out of cast-off books.

Clement Guthro, Colby's director of libraries, said the relationship is ideal: Miller Library is able to make room for the 10,000 to 12,000 new volumes purchased each year and the books shipped out go, eventually, to either other readers or get recycled.

Better World Books also donates a portion of each sale to literacy efforts across the country and around the world, as well as a portion back to the book supplier.

Guthro uses the term "repurposed" to describe the fate of the books that leave the Colby collection.

Environmental, social and economic benefits are achieved in the process.

Plus, a lot of people end up happy rather than upset.

"People don't like the idea of books disappearing or going to a landfill, and we," Guthro said referring to library staff, "don't want them to go to a landfill."

Book management

A library, especially a college library, is a dynamic place. New books come in on a regular basis, competing for shelf space with existing tomes.

Eventually, space becomes a limiting factor.

Miller Library has reached that point, which is the reason the 40,000 volumes must go, although not immediately but over a two-year period in batches of 3,000 to 4,000 at a time.

"And in another four years we will add that 40,000 back," Guthro said. "A lot of academic libraries have an off-site storage facility. We don't have one. I really think if we had one, some portion (of the books removed) would go to storage."

The books being removed are not bestsellers.

These are books, Guthro said, that have not been checked out in 20 years.

In some cases, this is a result of the information being outdated or of a curriculum change that makes the information less relevant to current students and faculty.

Whatever the reason, Guthro said "these are books that have not been used."

John Harrison, associate librarian at Bates College in Lewiston, describes a similar process, although the Ladd Library is fortunate to have some storage space.

Still, even that storage space is limited, which means some books have to be shipped out.

Harrison said Bates, like Colby, has opted to use Better World Books to take care of the books "withdrawn."

One of the major reasons for that decision, he said, is efficiency.

"We do not do book sales," he said. "They are really kind of a costly option for libraries with small staffs. I have worked with different book vendors in the state that will buy things from me, but that is not a very satisfying process."

Better World Books supplies the boxes and takes care of the shipping -- both the cost and the labor. All the library has to do is pack the books in the boxes.

Colby plans to start packing boxes for Better World Books this fall. Guthro said a list of the books headed for removal will be sent to faculty beforehand. He said any faculty member that wants to claim one of the volumes can do so.

Harrison said under the agreement, Better World Books sends back to the book supplier a small percentage of the money earned from whatever books are sold.

That money, he said, should be enough to cover whatever he spends to pay students for packing the boxes with books.

Book selling

Three University of Notre Dame graduates started Better World Books.

They saw a way to make money while at the same time helping the environment and aiding literacy efforts -- more than 80 nonprofit groups involved with literacy receive funding.

Founded in 2003, the company, a for-profit venture, updates its Web site constantly on how much has been raised for global literacy and how many books have been saved from the landfill.

The figures on June 25 were $6.4 million raised and nearly 25 million books rescued.

"We have more than 1,500 library clients at the moment all across the country," Vice President of Acquisitions Dustin Holland said from his office in Alpharetta, Ga. "Our clients are in every single state, including Hawaii and Alaska, and we even go into Canada."

Better World Books has grown from a company with $4 million in sales in 2005 to an estimated $30.6 million in the fiscal year that ends this month, according to Holland.

Holland said the company, which has 225 employees, sends 7 to 10 percent of those gross sales to its literacy and library partners, an amount that could approach $3 million this year.

Better World Books has its main warehouse facility in Indiana -- the other is in Scotland.

Holland said the Indiana operation currently has an inventory of 2.8 million books and that inventory receives 200,000 to 300,000 new acquisitions a week.

Better World Books sells its product through 19 online vendors, ranging from its own site to Amazon.com.

Holland said the company has sold books to customers in 191 countries, including Iran.

Despite all its vendors and customers, Better World Books ultimately recycles about half the books it acquires, Holland said.

Book benefactors

Emily Kirkpatrick, vice president of the National Center for Family Literacy, is unreserved in her praise of Better World Books.

"They are fabulous," she said from the nonprofit's Louisville, Ky. offices. "We have worked with them since 2005 and have had a partnership that has grown in so many ways."

Kirkpatrick said in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, Better World Books sent thousands of free books to areas impacted by the hurricane.

The company also provided the resources to train library staff on how to best meet the literacy needs of families victimized by the storm.

Holland said such outreach efforts are part of the culture at Better World Books.

"It is part of our DNA, essentially," he said.

Some of those employees will come to Colby's Miller Library this fall, the first of many trips the company will make over the next few years to the Mayflower Hill campus.

And some of those books may provide the dollars that the National Center for Family Literacy uses to encourage a young child to pick up a book.

Colin Hickey -- 861-9205

chickey@centralmaine.com