Thank you very much to everyone who responded to my post - I had 10 replies.
Accepting Donations/Donations Policy
In summary 7 library authorities accepted all donations. However, a number
of authorities, like us, are finding this problematic due to volume, poor
quality, lack of space, staff time etc.
1 library authority does not accept any non-fiction.
1 library authority only accepts local/foreign language/music scores.
1 library authority does not accept any donations except local history.
They said effectively stopping donations had not been popular with staff
and was difficult to enforce in small libraries.
A number specify that books must be in "excellent condition" and try to
discourage customers from donating out of date and tatty books.
Paperwork
5 authorities said that they required the customer to sign something to say
the library could do what they wanted with the items.
2 authorities get a verbal agreement from the customer.
4 authorities acknowledge every donation with a letter which if often used
to explain donations policy.
Alternative
3 out of 10 authorities said they make suggestions to customers of
alternative places where they could take their donations, charity shops etc.
Self published donations
This category of donations was acknowledged to cause problems at times.
Arrangements made to send the books back were made in some cases, but
usually with a qualification - they pay the postage, only if book was
solicited in the first place. Otherwise the common arrangement was for the
author to collect.
A couple of authorities said they treat self published donations like any
other donation and therefore would not necessarily acknowledge or keep it.
A useful phrase, from Plymouth Library, that I think we will incorporate
into our donations policy is "we are unable to inform customers of usage
patterns of items added to stock". We have had quite a few requests
recently and don't currently have something to point to and say no!
Madeleine
Madeleine Bentley
Team Leader: Librarians
Reading Central Library
Abbey Square
Reading
RG1 3BQ
0118 9015969
[log in to unmask]
|