I own a bunch of older magic DVDs that aren't worth trying to sell (especially after taking into account shipping costs). Would donating them to my local public library make sense? One could argue that it deprives creators of income, but it might also introduce someone to a creator they were formerly unfamiliar with. Years ago I bought a bunch of At the Table lectures based on recommendations from here at the Café, mainly because those lectures are so cheap (like $7 or $8 per disc). One I purchased was by Nick Einhorn, someone I knew nothing about at the time, but I've since become a huge fan and bought much of his material since. I've thought about suggesting this to everyone at the local magic club so that we could collectively create a large local resource of magic videos, but am I perhaps overlooking an ethical problem here?

They likely will never be put on a library shelf. Libraries usually do a book sale once or twice a year, and the majority of the stuff is donated items. Maybe you'll luck out and have a kid with an interest in magic buy them. Or, if someone is merely curious about how things work, I wouldn't worry about that; they'll never remember what they saw. The other possibly is that they will be trashed. Even places like Goodwill don't want them unless they have some real value. They just check the going rate on Amazon and/or eBay and toss the vast majority of them.

I don't think ethics play much of a roll here. You bought them and you have every right to resell them. I know, I know.....magic ethics have their own belief system, but you won't be creating any chaos. If your club isn't interested, you can always sell the whole collection on eBay as a bundle and use the lowest cost shipping method. Dividing them up is going to be work-intensive for very little profit.

My wife is a librarian and worked in the collection development department for several years.

I can assure you that the likelihood of these DVDs being put into circulation is next to zero, and, as MJE said, they will probably be sold at a "Friends of the Library" sale or simply discarded and throw away.

Do you have a local magic club? THEY would be able to put those discs to use.

Check with your local S.A.M. Assembly.

I would check with a local club or SYM group. Even if you had a local magic convention and donated them to the youth event, I think it would be better served than the library.

Kinda sad, when you realize how much money, and affection we have invested in many of those DVDs. I'm not sure how big it is, but here in Southern California, we have a social media called "Nextdoor". I discovered there was a group of magicians there comprised of some young guys. I donated a load of Genies and Magic magazines to one of the members. Also, I'd look on Facebook to see if there are any young magicians in the area. Failing this, you could always offer it up on the Facebook page for Magic for Sale Items as "Free, pay only shipping". I'd be a shame to just throw them out.

The New York public library has Dai Vernon material available. Libraries are important and I think that would be a great donation.
If I like something enough that I've checked out from a library I usually end up buying my own copy anyway.

There was a dude in San Francisco who, several years ago, got a real kick out of putting pro-level magic books into the library collection because he had a friend who was a librarian & would just add them without any consideration...

Can anyone guess what happened?

Yeah. The majority of those books were stolen. As those books went out of print, they would also "magically" disappear from the library collection.

If you ever want to shed a tear for what could possibly have been, check out the San Francisco public library's 793.8 listings & the status of all of those books

Greetings Merenkov; May I offer a suggestion ? I had a large group of
Beginner magic DVD's like Jaw Droppers, tricks with a stripper deck, Easy
card magic and such. I donated about 17 DVD's to a local military base.

They were happy to get them, and pass them onto men who were stationed in
various locations. The upside to that has been in the past 2 years, I've
been contacted by a couple of these gentlemen about what other tricks can
they learn and where to search for them.

In a way, these gentlemen were introduced to a new hobby, gave them something
to help pass their time where they are located, and they may be our future
magicians and fellow Café members.

Just my 2 cents of a suggestion for whatever it is worth.

All the Best
Marty

That's a great story, Marty! Thanks for that, it really made me happy to hear it.

Thanks to all who responded with many great suggestions. I find it discouraging that libraries apparently would have no interest (but it's cool that the NY Public Library has Dai Vernon material available). I especially liked Marty's suggestion of donating to a local military base. By the way, I "subscribed" to this topic, but never received notice from the Café that anyone had replied. The Café can be mysterious that way...

Hmmmm. I didn't know we could subscribe to a topic. I subscribe to the general ummmm...room (?) of "Did You Hear The Latest." Anything that gets posted in any subjects that get posted there, get posted here. Yeah, I'm doing a lousy job of making sense, but I get the Red Cup when a new post in the group comes up. Sometimes weeks go by without new subjects or replies coming up, and that's perfect for people like me who don't have all day to spend in the Café.

Agreed. Will also likely go into hands of people that care more too. I know that San Diego IBM Ring 76 has an extensive library. If anyone wants to reach out, we'll probably take them and will even pay shipping costs

Couldn't find it at first because the search system wasn't as intuitive as I expected. I'm assuming the majority of the list is stolen but the status says "Check Shelf"? Here are some of the ones that stung the most:
Dai Vernon Book of Magic
Magic and Methods of Ross Bertram
Steel and Silver - Gertner
Magic of Michael Ammar

I took all my old tapes to local circus school.

Awhile back I had some DVDs and some tricks I no longer wanted. I gave them to local Brick & Mortar shop so that he could sell them, or give them away as a bonus to customers. Figured if I was going to donate to someplace, might as well help the stores...