Gifts : Policies and Procedures

GUIDELINES FOR ACCEPTING GIFTS

The Library welcomes gifts of materials relevant to Kenyon's needs and in usable condition. These gifts may be single volumes or larger collections. All potential gifts will be evaluated in terms of the collection development goals of the Library. These include: supporting the current and evolving curriculum; supporting the basic research needs of faculty and students; and maintaining selected collections of depth.

PROCESS FOR ACCEPTING GIFTS

All offers of donations to the Library are referred to the Collection Development Librarian, who will acknowledge donations and report to the College Development Office.
The donor should provide a description of any substantial gift before it can be considered. In the absence of such documentation, the Library may require on-site evaluation of the collection by library staff before the Library can accept the gift.
Except in extraordinary circumstances, the Library will not accept gifts on which the donor places restrictions that will negatively affect the use of the materials.
If, on subsequent evaluation, the Library determines a gift to be inappropriate for our collections, it will not be added to the collections, but will be disposed of as described below.
The Library cannot provide appraisals of a gift’s market value.

GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING GIFTS

All gifts are to be evaluated in light of the following criteria: ability to add depth or breadth to the existing collections; support of overall collection development priorities; relevance of content; and physical condition
The Library generally will not accept gifts when their physical condition does not allow normal library shelving and use. However, in some cases the Library may accept books of sufficiently important content or provenance even if they require professional treatment to protect and preserve them.
The Collection Development librarian and/or subject liaison librarians will evaluate gifts. They will make the final decision on adding unique titles or additional copies to the collections. Potential donations to Special Collections will be evaluated in consultation with the Special Collections staff.
When specialized knowledge is required to evaluate a gift, library staff may consult with members of the faculty or others with appropriate expertise.

DISPOSITION OF GIFT MATERIALS

With the exception of some archival or Special Collections materials and promotional donations from publishers and authors, all books added to the collection will bear a bookplate indicating the donor's name, when the donor is known and wishes one.
All gifts added to the collection will be cataloged and listed in the Library's catalog.
Gifts that are not added to the collection will be disposed of in one of the following ways:
- In cases where other institutions have teaching or collecting goals which the gift more appropriately supports, these institutions may be offered the gift. The first preference is to place the item in one of the member libraries of The Five Colleges of Ohio, to which Kenyon College belongs.
- If they are of artifactual value, they may be sold to a specialty book dealer, and the proceeds applied to future acquisitions.
- Other unaccessioned gifts will generally be sold and proceeds applied to future acquisitions.
- In rare circumstances and if it has been arranged in advance, they will be returned to the donor.