The Libraries do not accept donations of books and other material due to serious space constraints and the high cost of sorting, reviewing and processing donated material.
Please consider one of these other options for passing along your material: the Friends of the Andersen Horticultural Library for their annual book sale, your local public library, used books stores, or charitable organizations such as Books for Africa.
If you feel your potential gift is of critical research interest to the Libraries (rare or unique items only), please call 612-624-9064 and leave your name and contact information, along with a description or characterization of the material. You may also send this information to us by e-mail at: [log in to unmask] or by regular mail to Collection Development and Management, 170 Wilson Library, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN 55455. We will respond as soon as possible.
Thank you for your interest in supporting the University of Minnesota Libraries.
From: "Jim O'Donnell" <[log in to unmask]>Date: Mon, 12 Mar 2018 07:04:48 -0700
Libraries struggle with donations: retired faculty, alumni friends,
people of a certain age looking to downsize would love to give us
their books, carefully selected and cared for over decades. Several
problems arise: the books themselves are often very largely
duplicates of material we already have; or deal with areas where we
don't have an interest in collecting; and every volume accepted comes
with a cost in staff time for handling and cataloging and in housing
costs over time. So libraries are often now more resistant and have
to be very sensitive to the disappointment we create.
I have an idea that I have seen somewhere efforts at providing
guidance for those who would donate academic books usefully -- at
broad, at home, bookdealers, etc. Can any of our learned readers
provide pointers to such guidance? I ask because I wonder if we
couldn't provide particularly academics useful practical guidance
through such information disseminated by e.g. a professional society
to its members. This can't be a unique or unheard-of problem.
With thanks for all pointers,
Jim O'Donnell
Arizona State University