Eli M. Oboler Library

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Gift Materials Policy

Objectives of the Gifts Program   |   Procedures for Processing Gift Materials
Collection Development Guidelines

Objectives of the Gifts Program:

The Library welcomes and encourages the donation of published, manuscript and archival materials. Gifts provide a valuable supplement to purchased materials and often add to the collection rare or unique items that cannot be acquired in any other way. At the same time, because processing gift materials entails significant costs, and the Library seeks to maintain high standards of collection quality and appropriateness, the Library carefully reviews each item donated before it is processed, cataloged and added to the collection. Unwanted materials are offered to other libraries or for sale. Remaining items are discarded, except when the donor has requested that he/she be able to reclaim them.

Because the Library accepts donated items with the hope of either adding them to the collection or selling them to fund other acquisitions, the basic criterion for acceptance of such materials is that they be good candidates for one or both ends. In applying this criterion, however, the Library recognizes certain practical limitations. It cannot, nor does it intend to, scrutinize every item in a given lot of offered items before accepting the lot as a whole, and it does not require that more than a reasonable percentage of the items in a lot fulfill the criterion.

At the same time, there may be cases in which it is apparent to the Library that an offered gift does not fulfill the standards for acceptance. As an example, proffered issues of a non-scholarly periodical which the Library already holds in bound form would almost certainly not be added to the collection, nor could they be profitably sold. In such cases, the Library may legitimately refuse the gift.

Because of the Library's liberal acceptance policy and inability to check all donated items against its holdings at the time of the donation, it is inevitable that many items that are accepted will not be added to the collection. Among the kinds of materials that are not likely to be added are: short or incomplete runs of periodicals, especially those not currently subscribed to; out-of-date textbooks; complimentary instructor's copies; obsolete reference materials; mass-market paperbacks; pamphlets; and damaged or physically ephemeral materials of all kinds. Most gift items which duplicate materials already owned by the Library will not be added. Some, however, may prove useful as second copies or as replacements for owned copies which are in poor condition.

Specific guidelines for adding donated or exchange-list journal issues have been developed and will be found in Section III.

Procedures for Processing Gift Materials:

Dealing with the potential donor who calls or appears at the Library simply to inquire about the Library's interest in, or policies concerning, gifts:

Refer such persons to the Head of Collection Development, or, in his/her absence, to the Circulation Desk. Staff at the Circulation Desk should be prepared to:

  1. Explain Library policies with regard to gifts.
  2. Obtain a basic description of the potential gift materials, making note of:
    1. the type or types of materials included in the gift lot;
    2. the quantity of materials (approx. no. of vols. and/or periodical issues); and,
    3. in the case of periodicals, the titles and approximate number of issues per title, insofar as this information can be obtained.
  3. Refer the potential donor to the Special Collections Department, if the materials to be donated are manuscript or archival materials, and to the Idaho Health Sciences Library (IHSL), if they are predominantly health-related. If Special Collections or the IHSL is closed, follow step four.
  4. Take down the potential donor's phone number and tell him/her that a librarian will soon call to discuss the matter further. All information should be passed on to the Head of Collection Development, the Head of Special Collections, or the Head of the IHSL, as appropriate.

Dealing with potential donations which are so large that transporting them to the Library is difficult for the donor.

When possible, the Library would prefer to inspect a large prospective donation in situ, in order to ascertain the character of the collection and, if the donor agrees, accept as a donation only those items which are thought to be potentially useful to the Library. The Library is quite willing, in such cases, to itself transport the collection, or that portion of it which is accepted, to Library premises.

Dealing with the potential donor who appears at the Library, gift in hand, without prior warning.

Those who appear, in person, with published materials that they wish to donate to the Library should be directed to the Circulation Desk. If the materials are manuscripts, typescripts or other unpublished documents, they should be directed to Special Collections.

The Circulation Department should simply accept any donation that consists of approximately 25 monograph items or less, or 25 periodicals issues or less, or both.

If the proffered gift consists of a larger number of items, Circulation staff should contact the Head of Collection Development, who will make a judgment about accepting the gift.

If the Head of Collection Development is not available for consultation, the gift can be held in the Circulation Department area until an assessment of it can be made. In such cases, staff should write the word "Provisional" at the beginning of the donation description portion of the Donation Agreement, and give a blank copy of the agreement to the donor. If the gift is not accepted, the donor will, of course, be notified and be able to reclaim the materials. It is important that the donor understand that there is no absolutely secure storage area available and that, therefore, the Library cannot guarantee the security of the gift while it is being held.

Dealing with exchange lists.

When an exchange list is received by someone in the Library who has not requested it, it should be given to the Head of Collection Development. The Head of Collection Development will see that the list is checked against holdings in order that desirable items may be identified, and that a request for those items is sent to the list provider. The items will be delivered to the Head of Collection Development, who will distribute the received materials and arrange to reimburse the supplier for shipping costs, as necessary, drawing upon the Library's portion of monograph funds from an appropriate subject area. Invoices for shipping costs will be sent to Acquisitions with clear instructions as to which monograph allocation is to be charged.

The IHSL may send for, receive, process and make requests from, journal exchange lists, without consulting the Head of Collection Development, as long as the acquisitions follow Library guidelines on adding gift journals (see Part III of this document), and the Collection Development Department receives notification of all journal issues so acquired.

As in the case of non-IHSL acquisitions, shipping costs for which invoices are received will be paid either from the designated IHSL monograph allocation or from the Library's portion of an appropriate subject area allocation. Acquisitions must be informed of the specific monograph allocation to be drawn from.

Postage costs for out-going shipments of journals from the IHSL to other libraries or vendors, must be paid out of the designated IHSL account. To distinguish these costs from other Library postal costs, all such shipments should be specially marked by writing the budget code 826-020-20 immediately below the return address on the package.

Monies received by the IHSL as reimbursement for the cost of shipping exchange journals should be forwarded to Library Accounting to be deposited in account G03F.

Dealing with gift materials that simply arrive at the Library, by mail or furtive deposit.

Gift items that are mailed to the Library should be sent to the Collection Development office with all accompanying written material and packaging, as described in step 2, below. If items are simply left at the Library, whoever finds them should notify the Head of Collection Development.

Handling donated published materials after they have been accepted.

NOTA BENE! The numbered procedural steps described below apply to all gift materials received by the Library, except for those materials received directly or indirectly by the IHSL. At the conclusion of the discussion of procedural steps, the appropriate steps for the IHSL to follow will be explained.

  1. Requesting that the Donor Sign a Donation Agreement. The Donation Agreement (see appendix B) describes the gift, explains to the donor the conditions under which the Library accepts gifts, and records the donor's name and address. If acceptance of the gift takes place at the Circulation Desk, Circulation staff should fill out the appropriate sections of the donation agreement, ask the donor to read it, and sign it. If a gift plate is desired, that should be noted on the form. If the donor refuses to sign, write "anonymous" in the name/address space and fill out the remainder of the agreement. The description of the donation can, at this point, be brief and general, e.g. "about 15 vols., half hardcover, miscellaneous subjects but emphasis in biology". If a letter of acknowledgement is sent, a copy of the Donation Agreement will be sent with it to the donor. The original will be filed by the Collection Development office.
  2. Transporting Gift Materials to the Collection Development Workroom. Whoever accepts gift materials, whether the Head of Collection Development, Circulation staff, or the Acquisitions Department (for items sent directly by mail), should take them, as soon as is convenient, to the Collection Development Workroom (CDW), accompanied, if possible, by the Donation Agreement. Steps 3-5 and 7-11, described below, will be performed at the CDW, by the Collection Development staff or Bibliographers.
  3. Preliminary Weeding. All donated materials, monographs and periodicals, should be initially reviewed, prior to the preparation of GiMPS and GiPPS, in order to remove items which are clearly not appropriate for addition to the collection and should, instead, be sold, discarded, held for exchange or returned to the donor. Special Collections staff will perform this weeding for materials received initially by them. The Head of Collection Development will do so for all other materials, with the assistance, if necessary, of bibliographers.
  4. Inserting Process Slips. Gift Monographs Process Slips (GiMPS) should be inserted in monograph donations, one per title; Gift Periodicals Process slips (GiPPS) or Exchange Periodicals Process Slips (EPPS), (see Appendix B for all forms) should be inserted in periodicals, one per title. In multivolume monographs, put the GiMPS in the first volume. Assign a lot number to the gift and write it on the GiMPS/GiPPS. The lot number is generated by writing the date of receipt of the donation, in numerals, with slashes, as "(month)/(day)/(year)", followed by the first letter of the donor's last name. Also indicate on the GiMPS/GiPPS whether or not the donor has requested that unwanted items be reclaimable ["Return requested by Donor (Y or N)"].
  5. Recording of Gift Materials by Type. The quantity and character of donated materials will be recorded. (See step 14 for details of statistics recorded.) Staff will check the Donation Agreement at this point and make any corrections or additions necessary to insure its accuracy and completeness.
  6. Acknowledging Gifts. All gifts will be acknowledged unless the circumstances of the donation make acknowledgement unnecessary. Gifts sent to the Library by anonymous donors, publishers, or individuals or organizations whose aim is clearly to achieve public distribution of the donated published materials, will not be acknowledged. If the gift is a large or otherwise significant collection, the University Librarian and Dean will acknowledge it, otherwise the Head of Collection Development will do so. A copy of the Donation Agreement will accompany the acknowledgement.
  7. Providing for Official Receipts. If the donor has requested an official receipt, a copy of the Donation Agreement must be sent to the ISU Foundation office. The Foundation will issue a receipt and send it to the donor.
  8. Distributing Government Documents and Pamphlets. All government documents will be taken to the Documents Department; all pamphlets to either the Reference Department, the IHSL, or Special Collections, depending upon their subject matter. The recipient departments will add or discard items at their discretion.
  9. Completing and Circulating the GiPPS. For each periodical title, the issues donated will be recorded on the GiPPS or EPPS. The issues themselves will remain in the CDW until step 11 is completed. The GiPPS will be sent to the Periodicals Department, which will mark any issues that it wishes to retain, either as duplicates (in red) or to fill gaps in current holdings (in green), and return the GiPPS to the CDW. Collection Development staff will search holdings and back file records for the titles and attach holdings information to the GiPPS. All issues which have been discovered to be useful as duplicates or to fill gaps in Library holdings, will be processed for addition to the collection. In the case of issues of titles not held by the Library, the Head of Collection Development will make the decision to add or discard, in consultation with appropriate bibliographers.
  10. Checking Gift Monographs against Holdings. The Collection Development staff will check all donated items which they receive (i.e. those that survived the preliminary weeding) against Library holdings and complete the appropriate parts of the GiMPS. If the Library already holds a copy of a donated item, the comparative condition of the two items will be recorded, whenever possible, to provide a basis for further decision making.
  11. Final Decisions. After monograph materials have been processed through step 10, they will be placed on designated shelves in the Collection Development area and the Head of Collection Development, with the advice of appropriate Bibliographers, will make final decisions on their fate. When a decision about an item is made, it will be recorded on the GiMPS.
  12. Further Processing of Items to be Added.

    Monographs:
    All monographs to be added to the collection will be taken to the Acquisitions Department. Acquisitions Department staff will perform the following tasks: Book plates, if requested by the donor, will be placed in monograph items; each item will be tattle- taped; cataloging copy will be generated for each item; and, finally, monographs will be taken to the Monograph Cataloging Department for cataloging.

    Monographs which are in poor physical condition will need to be bound before they reach the collection's shelves. This need will be indicated on the GiMPS. Such volumes shall be sent, after cataloging, to the Binding Department, via Circulation, by the Cataloging Department.

    Periodicals:
    Periodicals selected for addition to the collection will be taken from the CDW, by Collection Development staff, and given either to the Serials Department, or Serials Cataloging, for further processing. After the necessary cataloging, labeling and binding tasks are performed, the GiPPS will be returned to the Collection Development Office.

  13. Final Disposition of Items Not Added. Items not selected for addition to the collection will be disposed of as follows:

    Monographs and documents: Those destined for sale will be taken by Collection Development staff to the sale storage area. Those which must be made available for reclamation by donors will be taken to a special holding area; all other unwanted monographs and documents will be disposed of.

    Periodicals: Unwanted issues of periodicals will either be saved for exchange, returned to the donor, or disposed of.

    In the case of all materials to be returned to the donor, the department holding the items will inform the donor that the items may be picked up and the donor is allowed one week to retrieve the items. After a week has elapsed, the Library may dispose of the items as it sees fit.

  14. Statistics: Gift statistics for Special Collections will be kept by that department. All other statistics, as described below, will be compiled by the Collection Development Department:

    The following statistics will be compiled:

    1. Number of donors
    2. Gross number of items donated:
      1. by publication type, i.e. monograph, periodical issue, pamphlet, government document, other;
      2. by donor
      3. by potential destination, but only if that is the Health Sciences Library.
      A fiscal-year cumulation of 1) and 3) will be reported.
    3. Number of donated items designated for addition to the collection.
      1. by publication type, i.e. monograph, periodical.
      A fiscal-year cumulation of these figures will be kept.

  15. Idaho Health Science Library (IHSL) Procedures.

    The IHSL will be relatively autonomous with regard to the processing of gift materials. It may solicit and receive gift materials independently and perform step 1. After Step 1, the donation agreement will be sent to the Collection Development Office. All materials received may be kept in the IHSL during the initial stages of processing. Step 2 may be bypassed. Preliminary weeding (step 3) and the preparation of GiPPS, GiMPS and EPPS, (step 4) may take place in the IHSL, under the direction of IHSL staff. This will entail disposing of weeded materials in the manner described in step 3 (returning items to the donor, sending them to sale or exchange-list storage, or discarding them).

    The IHSL will proceed directly from step 4 to steps 9-11, i.e. to checking the gifts against Library holdings and decision-making on the disposition of all gift materials that remain after weeding.

    Step 12 procedures will be carried out as follows: IHSL staff will take all monograph, non-health-related pamphlet, and document items destined to be added to the collection to the Collection Development Workroom; they will send periodicals which are to be added to the collection directly to the Serials Cataloging Department; they will file health-related pamphlet materials in the IHSL pamphlet file.

    The Collection Development staff will, at this point, record the gift, based upon the donation agreement and send letters of acknowledgement when appropriate (steps 5-7) and distribute government documents and pamphlets (step 8). It will also complete step 12 processing of monographs.

    The procedures concerning items which are not to be added, de- scribed in step 13, will all be carried out by IHSL staff.

  16. Manuscript or Archival Materials Procedures.

    Donated manuscript and/or archival materials will be handled by the Special Collections Department. The donor will sign a Deed of Gift appropriate for such donations. Criteria for acceptance and disposition of Special Collections donations, and complete procedures for the handling of such gifts, are described in a separate document.

Collection Development Guidelines, Gift Journals

The following guidelines should be taken to apply to issues of journals which are offered to the Library by donors, and to issues available to the Library through exchange lists.

Prime Consideration:

There must be good reason to believe that the proffered issues will be used by Library patrons, if added to the collection. Among the factors affecting use will be curriculum, research interests of faculty and graduate students, the needs of special clients of the Library (e.g. hospital staff and physicians), the quality of the journal and the age of the issues. The Library does not regard itself as an archival repository for materials whose age renders their use unlikely.

General Considerations:

  1. Physical Condition: Issues which are in poor physical condition should not be added, though damage to an issue's cover may not be of consequence if it is to be bound.
  2. Age: In the areas of the physical, life and health sciences, the donated issues should not be more than 30 years old at the time of the donation. If a donated run of issues in these subject areas includes a substantial number of <30 year-old issues, but also includes >30 year-old issues, the older issues may be acquired as well, as long as the collection is genuinely enhanced by so doing. In the humanities and social sciences, the age of the material is not so clearly connected to its value and potential use and therefore no age limitation has been established.
  3. Replacement of microfilm: If gift issues in paper would replace issues which the Library possesses in microfilm, and there is reason to believe that the paper issues would be a superior resource (due, e.g., to photographic content), then the gift may be added. However, it should be kept in mind that replacing microfilm with donated paper issues, even if bound, is not without cost to the Library, and this is a cost which does not result in expanded coverage. Extensive replacement of microfilm is therefore not encouraged.
  4. Space: If the space available for housing journals is a limiting factor at the time the gift is received, it is necessary to weigh carefully the value of the gift against the potential costs of its acceptance.
  5. Retention and Binding: Adding unbound issues of journals to the Library's collection may entail, at some future date, the cost of binding them. Binding decisions will depend upon current Bindery Department binding guidelines and relevant factors such as whether the journal is currently subscribed to, whether it would be retained indefinitely in paper form, the dates of the issues, their physical condition and format, etc. Potential binding expenses should be taken into consideration when gauging the overall value of gift issues to the collection.
  6. Regular Donations: If an arrangement with a donor involves the donation of issues on a regular basis, either as they are published, or at other regular intervals, the strictures below on the minimal time-span do not apply.

Issues of Journals currently subscribed to by the Library:

Gift issues may be added if:

  1. They either fill gaps in the issue sequence of a held journal, or would fill such gaps that are anticipated to develop, due to damage, loss, etc.
  2. They extend the held run, but only if they constitute at least one complete volume.

Issues of Journals which are held by the Library, but not currently subscribed to:

Gift issues may be added if:

  1. They fill gaps in the collection.
  2. They extend the held run, either forward or backward in time, as long as the journal is deemed of sufficient value and usefulness to warrant the additions, and the extension would be at least a volume in length.

Issues of Journals which have never been subscribed to by the Library.

Criteria 1 through 3 must be met to justify adding gift issues. Criterion 4 is an important, but not determinative, factor.

  1. Indexing: The journal should be indexed by at least one major source which is readily available to Library users.
  2. Completeness and scope: The run of issues should be substantially complete and cover a minimum of one year's worth of issues.
  3. Value: As indicated in the "Prime Consideration", the issues must meet a need, i.e. there must be evidence that the issues will receive use by either the academic community, or a community of users (other than the general public) which the Library directly serves.
  4. Prospects for adding to the run: If there is a good chance that future gifts will continue the run in question, or that the journal will be subscribed to in future by the Library, there is added reason to add the issues in question. If, on the other hand, the prospects are that the issues will be orphaned forever, this is a strong reason not to add them.
Last Modified: 01/23/2008 sc