The key is to make sure that you have donors sign a written document that allows you to discard anything that you don't want to keep.
Here is the University of Pittsburgh Library System agreement (which is online) http://www.library.pitt.edu/uls/GE/donorform.html: Gift policies: The University of Pittsburgh, upon receipt of the gift material, becomes the owner and reserves the right to determine retention, location, cataloging treatment and disposal of the material. Material not added to the ULS collections may be used for exchange, sold to raise money for book purchases, donated to other institutions, or otherwise discarded. The University of Pittsburgh, due to IRS regulations, cannot provide appraisals of donated material. Donors must notify the University, prior to the donation, if the gift material has a significant value of $5,000.00 or more. Donations of significant value must have a qualified appraisal, and The University of Pittsburgh will require a copy of the appraisal summary. Please be aware that large gifts may take up to 5 years to be processed *By checking this box, I agree to the policies listed above. I used to work as an archivist for the Western Pennsylvania Jewish Archives at the Historical Society of Western Pennsylvania. One of the first things that I did when I started that job was to write a formal collection policy that included details about what types of materials we would add to our collection. This policy "protected" me and the Historical Society from accepting many categories of unwanted materials that did not fit the scope of our specialized collections. The Historical Society (now the Senator John Heinz History Center) had a standard donation contract that I used. Best wishes, Faye R. Leibowitz General Languages Catalog Librarian University Library System University of Pittsburgh frle...@pitt.edu __ Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) ================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu To join Ha-Safran, update or change your subscription, etc. - click here: https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran Questions, problems, complaints, compliments send to: galro...@osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.service.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html Earlier Listserver: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org -- Hasafran mailing list Hasafran@lists.service.ohio-state.edu https://lists.service.ohio-state.edu/mailman/listinfo/hasafran
