Preparing a Law Library for Collection: A Checklist

Clearing a law library takes less preparation than most people expect. You do not need to box anything or count every volume, but a few things done beforehand make the valuation quicker and the collection day smoother.

This checklist covers what to send for a valuation, what to sort out about access, and what to leave alone.

For the valuation

Photograph every bay of shelving. Stand square to the shelves and take each bay straight on, in good light, so the titles and years on the spines can be read. Photos at an angle, or in a dim room with the flash bouncing off the bindings, are much harder to read.

Take a close-up of anything unusual. A volume you think might be rare, a set with damaged bindings, or anything you are not sure about.

Note the main sets and their years, if you know them. For law reports, the first and last years and any gaps. For Halsbury's Laws and Halsbury's Statutes, the edition. For practitioner texts, the title and edition of each.

Give a rough size. The number of bays, or roughly how many metres of shelving, tells us what kind of collection it is.

Say where the books are. The town or postcode, and whether they are in an office, chambers or a home.

A spreadsheet or stock list works as well as photos if you have one. Institutions often do.

For the collection

The floor and the way out. Tell us which floor the books are on, whether there is a lift, and whether there are stairs on the way out.

Where a van can stop. A loading bay, a car park, or the street outside. Some office buildings ask for the goods lift or the loading bay to be booked in advance, so check with the building if yours is one of them.

Any deadline. If an office must be clear by a certain date, or a house is being sold, tell us when you first get in touch. We arrange collections at a time that suits you.

Someone to let us in. On the day, all we need is access to the shelves.

What to leave alone

Do not box the books. We pack them ourselves, straight from the shelves, and pay the transport. Books left on the shelves are also easier to check against the valuation.

Do not split the runs. Keep each set together where it stands. A run that has been divided across rooms, or half boxed, is harder to value and to collect.

Do not throw away the supplements or index volumes. The updating volumes, binders and indexes that belong with a set are part of it.

Do not clear out the books you think are worthless. Send photos of everything. Where part of a collection has little resale value, we can talk about collecting it free of charge, and books in really poor condition are recycled with care when they come in.

The checklist

Sending it to us

Send everything through the valuation form, which takes up to twelve photos, or WhatsApp the photos to 07920 748314. We will value the collection for free and arrange the collection with you. The payment goes straight into your bank account.

If you are still deciding what to do with the books, our guide to what to do with old law books sets out the options.