CDL: Refusing large book donations ??? (response 6)

==no. 6===

>From  	"Campos, Brigida" <bcampos_at_cityofpasadena.net>
Subject  	RE:  Refusing large book donations ???

First of all, ask yourself---would you have been compelled to accept these two
donations even if you had a moratorium or stricter book donation rules?

I'm guessing you would have...
So, a follow-up question is going to be how to deal with this particular influx
of donated books.
...
Yes, I've seen many libraries put temporary moratoriums on donations. They seem
to just work it into their regular Public Relations announcements, no big deal.
Here is some wording that I've found:

" Temporary Moratorium on Book Donations!--We now have plenty of books for our
next book sale (and virtually no room to store more!), so ask that folks refrain
from bringing in donations until after that sale. Thank you!" [Hubbard Free
Library Headlines for February 2011 http://thevalleyvoice.org/]

 "The library still has a moratorium on book donations, unless the books are for
the Jerry Bartlett Memorial Collection, which is a special collection dedicated
to fly fishing. The library asks that you do not accept or store donations on
their behalf at this time. What the library needs most are financial contributions."
[Mid-Hudson Library System midhudson.org]

"The moratorium on book donations at the Robbins Library will be lifted on
Tuesday, Aug. 1. At that time, the library will resume accepting one bag/box of
donations at a time for the collection or the ongoing book sale. These should be
brought to the Reference Desk on the first floor."

Now, back to your inventory problem...

Is there any way to involve some volunteers to begin this process for you?
I know space is an issue everywhere, but if you could find the space:
Could volunteers unpack boxes on to shelves, culling out any damaged books as
they go along?
Then Collection Development selectors might be given a few weeks to browse and
choose; the remainders would go to a book sale if you have one; or recycle bin
if you don't.
The selected items would need to be incorporated into cataloging workflow, and
maybe it will take a while, but that's ok...
You  could also use these two donations to assess how many of these 1000's of
books were selected for the collection.
If not a lot, then you have evidence that it isn't worth accepting these bulk
donations in the future.
You could then stipulate that book donations can only be reviewed from a title
list provided by the donor.
If they have too many to list out, then that might be too many books for you to
accept.

I hope this helps the discussion...
--
Brigida Campos
Pasadena Public Library
Pasadena, CA