Various types of gifts are received from donors, inventoried, acknowledged and reviewed for the collection.   

Serials

The Library no longer accepts all serials gifts. The Serials Librarian will review a list of the offered items and specify what the library needs. Donors may choose to donate just those materials or may withdraw the offer. Journals are given to the Serials Department after they are inventoried and acknowledged by Collection Management.  

Special Collections

Usually Special Collections staff have been notified by the donor and are expecting the donation. Materials are inventoried, acknowledged and reviewed by Special Collections staff. 

Pre-review

Collection Management staff pre-process the remaining gift items so that only items that are likely to be added will be searched.

• The Collection Management staff review gifts and sorts into possible adds and possible rejects

• Materials are reviewed for appropriateness, damage, yellowed pages, mildew or mold, excessive notation, smell, etc

• These books may go directly to the trash if mildew/mold/water damage is evident

• See Pre-Processing of Gift Books by Collection Management Staff for more indepth information

Book review 

• The Collection Management Librarian reviews both the pre-selected and pre-rejected books.

• Selected titles go to Cataloging for  searching 

Criteria for selection:

• Books that support the general philosophy of the collection

• Timeliness, if we own more recent editions we won't usually add

• Books must be in good condition, with in-tact pages and covers

Not acceptable

• missing pages or pages falling out

• yellowed or crumbling pages or covers

• books with magnetic media 

• Cataloging may suggest rejection of books

• Language books may sit in limbo for years - they often need original cataloging and/or there may not be anyone who can read/translate the language.

10/07 RBM