Jewelry & Beading

Tip for Cheap Gemstone Books

by Tammy Powley on August 9th, 2005

If you are into jewelry making and beading, then you are probably also interested in rocks and minerals. Having a small collection of your own gemstone books is very handy for identifying mystery cabochons and stone beads. But, of course, books aren’t cheap these days. Here’s tip for those who have access to a local public library – check out its used book section. Even better, become chums with the librarian in charge of selling the books.

Here’s what you do:
1) Make contact. Make a personal trip to your local library. Usually the larger branches will have more books for sale.

2) Locate the books for sale section. Most libraries have an area where they sell older books or donated books that the library may not need. Some larger libraries even have used bookstores. Check the shelves for any lapidary, geology, or gemstone related books that you think you might wish to purchase, and of course, go ahead and buy them if you find any good ones. Prices will vary, but I’ve gotten books for as low as ten cents USD before.

3) Ask for the librarian in-charge of the books for sale section. Usually, there’s one person who is in charge of organizing all of this. When you met her, explain that you are interested in any books about lapidary and/or gemstones and see if she wouldn’t mind contacting you whenever they cull the shelves for older editions of these books in the future. Have your name and number written down or a card is even better so she can put it in her rolodex.

You may or may not get a phone call back, but many libraries would be more than happy to call you up. Usually, when they weed out old books they do them in batches. So, you could expect lots of rock books to be cleaned out at one time.

Now, expect these books to be old, but most of the information will be fine. The only thing I’ve noticed that might be different is the names of countries. Obviously, if you pick up a book from the 1970s, many of the countries that once made up “the iron curtain,” aren’t going to be listed correctly when you read about where a mineral or stone might be mined. Other than that, though, a rock is pretty much a rock.

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POSTED IN: Lapidary