GIFTS POLICY

1. GENERAL STATEMENT

JOURNALS/SERIALS: The University Library does NOT accept journal and serial issues as gifts unless donor receives prior approval from the librarian in charge of gifts. When donors contact Gifts Librarian with possible journal donations, the librarian will check our holdings to ascertain if we already hold the title and the extent of our holdings for filling of gaps. It is very likely that the Library already has the journal in bound form or in electronic form, so it is often unlikely that we will want it. Unsolicited journals are placed in the trash.

BOOKS/MONOGRAPHS

The University of Rhode Island Library collects books in all areas of human endeavor, but chiefly to support the academic, research and recreational interests of the university community. We accept donations of books under the following conditions: a) there are no restrictions as to ultimate disposal, b) there are no restrictions on access, and c) there are no special handling or processing requirements [such as donor bookplates, bibliographical descriptions and listings]. The University Library will provide an acknowledgement to the donor with a brief listing of the number of items in the gift [ex. “25 current books in psychology”, “13 economics pamphlets”, “50 general texts”]. The University Library can not assume responsibility for providing appraisals, unless the donation is of extreme value. Donors are requested to box and deliver donations to the Library’s shipping and receiving area, with the name and address of the donor on a sheet of paper within each of the boxes.

2. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT PROCEDURES:

a) A Count of the number of items in the donation is made, noted on the accompanying sheet with donor’s name and address.

b) An e-mail is sent to the library administration staff member in charge of sending out acknowledgements which briefly documents the extent of the donation [ex “25 current books in psychology”] and the name and address of the donor.

c) Monthly or more frequently, acknowledgement letters are sent on URI Library letterhead from the Dean of University Libraries to each donor, noting the gift [as above].

3. SELECTION/PROCESSING PROCEDURES

a) Librarian in charge of gifts, makes the brief count as above [2a], and separates books into books for the book sale [not needed by URI Library], items for immediate review for addition [recently published books] or possible items for Special Collections[possibly rare, expensive, or fit into one of our special collections], and items that need can be delayed for decision.

b) Immediate processing: if gifts are recently published and are possibly needed, a search is made of the catalog to determine immediate need [if we have the title on order we may cancel the order], will send to cataloging for immediate addition to catalog, or note HELIN bib.# on paper for immediate processing as added copy. If not required, book will be sent to book sale.

c) Special Collections Gifts will be processed in Special Collections under their processing routines. If it is eventually determined that book is not needed in Special Collections it may be needed as a circulating copy [will be sent to Cat. Unit as 3b above], or saved for sale of special materials, or sent to booksale.

d) as time allows, the remainder of the books will be searched against the online catalog, when a decision will be made as to cataloging the gifts or deciding on the necessity for added copies [circulating frequency will be reviewed on item records to help make this selection]. Items not selected for our collections will be sent to the book sale.

e) HELIN holdings are always taken into account when decisions are made on gifts. In some cases, the presence of HELIN copies not held by URI may be more than sufficient for URI needs.

4. CATALOGING PROCEDURES:

a) Those gifts selected for immediate cataloging will be worked into the ‘copy cataloging’ processes. In general, order records for gifts are not created or maintained. Titles will be cataloged as quickly as possible, as time allows.

b) Special Collections gifts will be handled through the Special Collections processing routines.

c) After selection is completed, the ‘copy cataloging’ processing will take place as time allows.

WTO’M 18Dec00