Library's used book sale section

Our City library has a permanent section of a large number of donated books that are for sale. The organization is minimal, and many crammed-in books can't be seen, so I thought that flash-mob cataloging may be the way to go. Does this sound like something that may work? Should I expect the library to have CueCats? Any suggestions would be appreciated.

Are they really worth cataloging if they're just going to be sold? Is anyone actually going to check the LT catalog to see what's available before browsing? Who is going to maintain the LT catalog to make sure the inventory is accurate as old books are sold and new books are added? Even if someone does find a book on the LT catalog, how will they find it on the shelf if there's no physical organization? (You could scan the books in "shelflist" order, but I doubt that order will be maintained over time.)

I agree that this collection sounds like it needs to be organized, but I think that simple physical organization will probably be more useful than trying to maintain a parallel LT catalog.

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I think you're probably right. It would certainly never occur to me to browse a library's catalogue to see what's in the sale section. I browse the sale shelves when I'm returning books and telling myself not to check any more out, right after I've gotten a couple out of the "New Books" section, "just to see if there's anything interesting".

Hi, I'm Lilithcat and I'm addicted to books.

Our library booksale is really well organized, but it turns over way too fast for a LT catalog to be useful - they'd have to have a permanent person just to keep their LT catalog up-to-date, change the sale process, etc.

All points well taken. Another dubious epiphany on my part.