Today I received a book that I've waited for a long time.  It's in great condition but it's a library book.  I don't have a problem with that, but it doesn't have a discarded stamp in it.  That concerns me.  Is there anything I should do?  I haven't marked it received yer.

My local library doesn't stamp their discards.  The FOL sale is this week, and I just bought several books there.  I'm thinking of ordering my own DISCARD stamp so I can swap these books when I'm through with them without the receiver being suspicious.

According to the Help Docs, if you are not sure if it was discarded - contact the Library.

I had to do that earlier this year, I just sent them an email with the Book # from their stickers, and they replied that it was no longer in their circulation.

I am with Mimi.  Also my library doesn't stamp books they discard.  I think I picked one up at a FOL that actually had a mailing label -( that could be peeled off) with decirculated from XX Library.   Other than that I have never seen a FOL book stamped discarded.

My parent's library has a discard stamp.  Ours just puts a black line through the bar code.  

Does it still have the barcode attached? If so, I would call or email the library and give them that information (barcode, in it's entirety). With that they should be able to very easily confirm if it has been removed from their system.

My local library no longer marks their books as discarded.

I purchased skinned from a used book store with a NY library book stamp. When I sent it to someone on PBS I advised them it was a library book that I had purchased online used. I should of marked out the library name. Never thought of it!

I wish our local libraries were less enthusiastic about marking them withdrawn. They put big black W's all over the place on them.  I mean really a line through the bar code and a W right there would be fine.  But they usually put a big W on the front cover, on the spine and then each edge of pages.  Somebody likes using the Sharpie too much.

Can I ask a potentially dumb question?  Why does it matter if the book is marked as a library withdrawal/discard?  If the sender checked it out and then swapped it, they're just going to get huge fines, so I can't imagine that anyone would do that just to get a credit.  I guess I can see the problem if people are smuggling books from the library for swap purposes, but my library has a very loud, beeping sensor that picks up on the unscanned books (sometimes if you're just walking by on your way upstairs).

Why does it matter if the book is marked as a library withdrawal/discard?  If the sender checked it out and then swapped it, they're just going to get huge fines, so I can't imagine that anyone would do that just to get a credit.

It's considered "stolen property."

It's pretty easy to get things past the detectors if you want to.  We had a problem in this area with a couple of people who were stealing DVDs and CDs/computer games from the libraries and selling them online.  Also with people stealing library cards or getting cards using false or stolen IDs.  They would then check out the max allowed and never return them.

I guess people are more devious than I thought ;)

It amazes me that people would steal from the library...I've seen stories online about arrest warrants being issued for overdue library books. I know every jurisdiction does do that, but still

It would never occur to me to question the legitimicy of a book that's mailed to me.  That would be a lot of trouble to steal a book from the library and then swap it for a measly credit on PBS.  I mean, I love my PBS credits, but I can't imagine risking arrest to earn one!

I had rec'd a library discard via PBS for a friend (who is also one of the local librarians).  When she saw it was a former library book without a discarded or withdrawn designation, she wasn't sure about taking it.  So I emailed the library it came from with the author, title & bar code number. I got a nice, but very surprised, reply stating that it was withdrawn from the collection & thank you for checking with us.  They'd not had anyone check on their withdrawn books before.... but was glad that I had.

I recently bought at least 6 beautiful copies of hardback Redwall books at our local FOL booksale.  It wasn't until I got home and started to post them here that I noticed they hadn't been stamped withdrawn.  So I called the library and they quickly checked the system and told me yes -  they had all been withdrawn.  I let the persons I was sending them to know this before sending them because I didn't want them to wonder about me.  

On one hand, I agree with those who suggest contacting the library the books came from to double check if this is a concern to you, but now that I'm seeing that some libraries evidently often don't bother with stamping a book withdrawn it seems like that could become a big task that will not likely yield much fruit in the long run (the "fruit" being tracking down a book thief). 

My library always puts a sticker over the bar code scan that the book has been withdrawn from the system and is being sold by the Friend's of the Library. I've also noticed that a few don't have a discard or withdrawn stamp on the inside. I did find a book in the sale section that didn't look right, so I took it up to one of the librarian's and sure enough it wasn't for sale. She told me that wasn't the first time that's happened and they've had several books stolen. I later found out that not all the books have the magnetic sticker in them.