If you need to know what to say to your trustee's wife when she calls to tell you she is bringing in the post cards she has been collecting all of her life from all over the world and asks if you can have someone help get the boxes out of the delivery van, this is the book for you.
What do you do when you are offered any number of gifts including but not limited to artifacts, letters, historical documents, collections of pictures, postcards, arrowheads? This book helps you reject such offers (keeping the prospective donor happy) or add and maintain these in your collection so that they are useful and used. Since archival materials are not considered as the usual circulation materials, how and when to loan them is another question answered. You may also be able to get volunteers to help you at every step along the way when you are acquiring and restoring gifts.
Many librarians are recipients of a variety of gifts from members of the community. How to accept or reject these donations is a continuing problem for persons who work in public libraries and will be even more of a question when the librarian has little formal training in archival or preservation work.
Introduction
Chapter 1: To Keep or Not To Keep?
Chapter 2: A Happy Home or a Final Resting Place?
Chapter 3: A Meaningful Life
Chapter 4: Be Prepared
Chapter 5: Relying on the Kindness of Strangers: Parent Organizations, Boards, and the Community
Conclusion: Yet Another Reason You're Special
References
Index
Reviews
"Robert's humor makes the subject less intimidating to the novice. The book is an easy read and appropriate for its intended audience."—Journal for the Society of North Carolina Archivists
". . . creates a helpful compilation of materials in Crash Course Library Gift Programs. Throughout, she is charmingly and effectively humours, bringing refreshing practical suggestions to situations that often become complicated and unintentionally expensive for libraries."—Catholic Library World
