Gifts Nobody Wants: The State of the Art in Dealing with Unwanted Donations

As academic librarians and archivists, we continually face the same problem: what to do with well-intentioned but inappropriate gifts. This presentation will look at current best practices in dealing with unwanted gifts before they enter the collection and removing unwanted materials from existing collections. Examples of effective collection management policies that cover both acquisition and deacquisition of items will be provided, together with suggestions for creating a cooperative understanding between the library/archive and the development office.