Western Metals open day

When Western Metals (a base metals mining company) went into Administration and then Receivership earlier this year, the disposal of the Library collection caused something of a conundrum for the Receivers. They had no interest in any potential monetary value of the collection, as they couldn't see past the fact that the collection took up a lot of office space and was full of "old" books on geology and mining (and no one is interested in those subjects, are they!), and so was therefore going to cause them a few headaches to dispose of quickly and cheaply.

Having nurtured and developed my Library over the past few years, I was also quite attached to it, and wanted to see it go to a good home, and so asked the Receivers for permission to manage the disposal of the collection. As it was quite a specialised technical collection, I could see that it was likely to cause more problems than benefits if it was donated to a charitable organisation.

The new purchasers of our mine sites were given the opportunity to take any items from the Library which they wanted, and all of our internal staff were allowed to ransack the shelves. At the end of this, there were still over half of the collection left, and so I decided to have an Open Day to giveaway anything which was left. I made several phone calls to institutions and individuals who I thought might be interested in having a bit of a look-see, and then sent an e-mail to WAIN, as well as to an old Australian Geoscience Information Association (AGIA) e-mail distribution list advertising the Open Day.

The Open Day itself was a great success! People started arriving well before the advertised start time with their boxes, bags and trolleys. I must say that it was an incredibly surreal experience to watch! There were bodies everywhere, and if it wasn't tied down, people wanted to take it home with them! Most people left quite pleased with themselves and with at least a few items which they had managed to snaffle, and some people left with much, much more than a few items (as in 20 boxes full of goodies!).

Even though everything was free, people were very protective of their stashes of books, and woe betide anyone who mistakenly glanced at a book which someone else had already "baggsed"! It really was a case of the quick and the dead, as there was very little left after the initial onslaught. Latecomers didn't necessarily leave empty handed however, despite the fact that to the naked eye it looked as though all of the good books had gone. There was one mother/daughter team who had been sent by their geologist husband/father who had heard about the book giveaway while he was working "out bush". He had made them drive down from Geraldton to Perth for the day to see what they could get hold of! By the time that they arrived, most of the shelves were empty, however they still managed to get a bag full.

By the end of day of the sale, the only items left were a full bay of explanatory notes for map sheets (mostly missing the maps), and about a dozen monographs. That is until I got a phone call from a geologist with his own consulting business who was looking for as many explanatory notes for map sheets which he could get his hands on, and he wasn't bothered about the fact that most of the maps were missing and so came down and took the lot and was very pleased with himself when he left!

While it was very sad indeed to see another Library wind up, it was very satisfying to see everything go to a good home. Everyone who turned up seemed to be in a good mood, and convinced that they'd got hold of a bargain. It was also a great opportunity for old friends to catch up, and there were several people who met up with an old acquaintance amongst the bookshelves and decided to go off and have a coffee to catch up. While I can't recommend living through a corporate collapse to anyone, I can definitely recommend a book giveaway, if only for the warm fuzzy feeling that you get when you see how excited people are to discover a long lost treasure amongst the book shelves!

Tara Smith

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