One of my first jobs was throwing out literally tons of bound periodicals at a college library. They were already in JSTOR and other databases, and other librar

One of my first jobs was throwing out literally tons of bound periodicals at a college library. They were already in JSTOR and other databases, and other libraries had many copies. The whole campus had 6 months to grab whatever they wanted from the list. Other libraries and institutions had years. Nevertheless i filled a cargo container sized dumpster with the unwanted volumes and felt weird doing it. Some passerby clearly disapproved and i told them they were welcome to whatever they wanted, but in the end no one actually wanted a hundred pound set of obscure medical journals from the 1980s in their own home. I saved some of the older and more beautiful items, some from the late 1800s, but even those couldn't be given away in necessary volume and what i grabbed was just a drop in the bucket. They remain in my parent's basement. Perhaps now there is a more efficient way to crowd source saving such items.