Maury Loontjens Library in Narragansett

Receipt of Gifts and Donations Policy

Adopted by the Library Board of Trustees April 2018

  1. Monetary gifts are graciously accepted as a supplement to the library budget to help with the overall operation of the library for the purpose of adding materials, new equipment, additional furniture or other items as needed.
  1. Memorial gifts donated to the library are welcome and encouraged as a way to assist both with growing the library collection and maintaining it. Memorial gifts are accepted and our library staff can recommend an area in the collection that needs additional selections. Selections of memorial books can be based on subject areas your loved one had a particular interest such as gardening, hobbies or favorite authors.
  1. Requests can be made to have acknowledgments and thank you notes sent out and also book plates can be placed in the front cover to designate a memorial gift.
  1. The Library Board and Staff recognize that donations of gently used books, audiobooks and movies have contributed significantly to our existing collection. It is appreciated as a way to add to our resources or to replace older copies showing some wear and tear.
  1. The inclusion of donated materials into our collection does follow the Collection Development Policy that library staff use as a guide to purchase items for the collection. Various factors influence whether or not an item can be added to the collection including:
    • Whether we already own the item.
    • That there are existing established professional journal reviews
    • Relevance subject to our community
    • The amount of time it will take to process & preserve the item
  1. Donated materials that are not added to the collection will be sold to compliment the operating budget. If you, the donor, are not interested in having the item sold be sure to tell the staff member accepting the donation.
  1. The following guidelines will be used to review all donations of materials for acceptance into the collection:
    • Clean, like new condition with no food or water stains, odors, writing, crayon or highlighting within the pages
    • No apparent damage to bindings, pages or covers
    • No textbooks, older volume sets such as encyclopedias (only current year accepted), condensed books, VHS tapes, cassette tapes or abridged audio cd titles are not included in our collection.
  1. Donations of a magazine subscriptions can be gifted to the library by a donor for a minimum of 1 year. The donor may choose the title of the magazine or leave the choice to the library staff. Individual magazine issues are accepted but they are not added to the collection or sold. They are given to patrons as a free resource.
  1. Donations of items previously accepted such as the Grandfather Clock, special photos and artwork, tapestries, flags have been accepted as memorial gifts for display throughout the library building. These types of donations may continue to be accepted with special consideration by the Library Board of Trustees and or library staff. Consideration of available space, the cost of maintenance, relevance to our community and the length of time the items will be housed at the library.
  1. There is no written guarantee that the donated items will be maintained or kept for any defined period of time. The library reserves the right to decline gifts and to decide when a gift is withdrawn from the library collection.
  1. Federal regulations prohibit the library from giving estimates as to the value of donations and all donations become the property of the Maury Loontjens Memorial Library. Upon request donations will be receipted for tax purposes.



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