We are currently looking at our donations policy, so I am interested in
knowing what other libraries donations policies are.
Currently at Reading we accept any stock donations from customers. We ask
them to sign a form that says donated items become the property of Reading
Libraries and we can then choose to do what we want with them.
However, we seem to be getting increasing numbers of donations. These take
up quite a bit of storage space, plus staff time to transport them (if they
are coming in from our branches), sort through them and box up anything we
don’t want for stock. There is usually the odd useful book amongst them,
but most of the time they are in too poor condition, out of date or
multiples of books we already have.
Has anyone stopped taking donations? How have customers reacted?
Another, related, question is what do you do about(usually)self published
authors, whose books you would not want for stock, who send in their books
to be put into stock? Do you send the book back with an explanation why
you don’t want it for stock or do you treat it as a “donation” and dispose
of it with your other unwanted/withdrawn stock?
I will summarise any answers for the list.
Many thanks
Madeleine Bentley
Reading Libraires
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