What are the rules and regulations for starting ones own public library?

Are you more concerned about selling or lending?
Renting is probably the way to go for textbooks. But that even I don’t know,

There ARE private lending libraries. That may be what you want to do, and you’d do best to find an organization or institute that would be glad to sponsor one. Unless you are rich enough to buy the lending material yourself (which has virtually no return of investment),

I have taken library science classes to set up libraries in churches, and worked in a Special Collections / rare books and archives library in a university. To start on would essentially be getting a nonprofit organization status,

@Yellowdog lending and selling the oudated ones for a buck. In Jasper they have a book nook attached to the museum where you pay buy donation on the honour system. I would like to see if I could start my own.

The book nook was the highlight of my week. You could get novels and textbooks on almost any subject, and pay whatever you wanted. I would get all of my change for the week and get a handful of books.

I know a physical therapy place that has such a program in their waiting room.

If you are using the honor system, which generally does work, all you need is a business or public space (such as the museum) to start your own.

To quote a famous line, “if you build it they will come.” There is a private free lending library where I live and people donate to it all the time. The people who work there are volunteers. Realize that where I live it’s a retirement community so people are dying or downsizing all the time and books and magazines take up space and usually aren’t kept by the surviving children. The library here you don’t really check out the book, you can keep it forever or return it.

My dad used to have a used book business and he made a lot of money buying and selling text books for a while there. More and more are available electronically I guess, but some never will be.

“people are dying or downsizing all the time“

Sounds like the perfect retirement community marketing tag line.

WELCOME TO SHADY ACRES
Where people are dying or downsizing all the time

Amazon already rents college textbooks, delivered right to you.

@cookieman Lol. A reality we try not to talk about too much. :) Many people move here in their 50’s, so it’s not like everyone is at death’s door.

“One’s own public library” is an oxymoron, it is inherently contradictory. You might look into whether your town allows the little wooden boxes that are called “little free libraries” and fund one of those in which you put your used books for others to take.

Public libraries don’t carry text books generally because they don’t want the expense of updating them nor do they want to compete with university libraries. And university libraries often only carry a “reserve” copy that can be lent out only to students for in library use..

I’m afraid you must dream about another profession.

I wonder if the book nook in Jasper makes money, or if it is just a public service or a way to get people to visit the museum. Selling textbooks for a dollar is not going to bring in much money.

A college Biology textbook costs $65 to $75 each new current edition. So rental would be $15 a month ?

A couple of points.

1) a privately owned library is not a public library. You may open it to the public, but unless you have city or county funding, it isn’t a public institution.

2) SUppose you opened up such a library. Where does your budget come from —electricity, heat, water, personnel, and of course, buying books? Traditionally and historically there were membership libraries (there still are a few around), but that’s not a sustainable budget basis unless you have very wealthy members.

3) Textbooks cost so much because they have such small press runs. A publisher isn’t able to make money on a book until they can sell thousands (tens of thousands) of copies. Otherwise the per-copy costs are too large (which is why you see them at $75/copy).