Donor Relations

Now that I'm home I'd like to take a closer look at Friday's class. We began the day with a discussion about donor relations that focused on copyright issues and the essential document, a deed of gift. Takeaway points include:

1. Never take anything on deposit without a deed of gift stating terms of copyright holdings.


2. Don't accept anything with permanent restrictions. Restraints of this nature relegate your gift to storage with no further opportunities for use.


3. Short restrictions are acceptable. For example, personal letters cannot be published during the author's lifetime due to privacy issues.


4. Know what to keep and what to throw away! The deed of gift should cover disposal of items that have no value. Options include returning them to the donor or throwing them away, but you can do neither of these without a well defined deed of gift.

Some details of donor relations amount to pure common sense such as sending the donor a formal thank you note denoting the contents of the gift. After all, that's how mother taught me to write a thank you note. Further acknowledgements may take the form of bookplates, exhibitions, both physical and virtual, as well as publications.

Appraisals are part of the gift process. Several good points were discussed including:

1. Librarians cannot appraise the gift, neither can the institution due to conflict of interest issues.
2. The IRS form 8283 is used by the appraiser. If a gift is under $5,000 the form is not required.
3. Librarians cannot recommend an appraiser but can provide a list of qualified appraisers.
4. Contrary to popular belief, the IRS does not prohibit libraries paying for appraisals.

We closed the day with the mystery book exercise. This time there was an additional question: Would the book at hand be added to special collections or would it be returned to the open stacks?

The first time we used the mystery book exercise (see Tuesday, July 22nd post) it was to familarize ourselves with a new way of examing a book. This time the application was to examine the book for suitablility for special collections, providing yet another way to view the book.

It was a great way to end the week. We'll be taking everything we've learned home with us and applying the lessons to our daily activities.

Policy and practicum

Collection Development Policy was the topic for Tuesday morning's discussion. The programmatic approach begins by building on strengths within an institution's special collections. Allocation of resources to meet the library's mission and fulfill the needs of students and teachers are necessities.

Access and audience were also part of the day's discussion. Taking turns around the room we developed a lengthy list of special collection patrons. We began with students and concluded with visiting dignitaries. The registration process, an integral part of the initial contact with most special collections was viewed as a form of orientation. Providing patrons with a set of guidelines would further integrate them into the special collections environment.

Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the day involved a book exercise adapted from "Questions to Consider," The Mystery Book Exercise, Wesleyan University, http://www.wesleyan.edu/libr/schome/exhibit/Teaching/Pedagogy/three.html. Each student was given a book and a set of questions. The books were in variety of bindings, printed in several languages, and covered a timespan over several centuries.

The questions:

1. Who is the author?
2. If others are associated with the book, who are they and what is their role?
3. When was the book published?
4. Where was it published?
5. Who published it?
6. Who printed it?
7. Is there any indication that it was approved or sponsored by an individual or institution?
8. Can you identify any former owners?
9. Can you find any evidence that the book was ever read?
10. If illustrated, how do the images relate to the text? What role do they play?
11. What size is the book? Is it a big book? A small book? What does size and shape tell you about the book?
12. What is the binding made from? When do you think it was bound?
13. How would you describe the book's condition?
14. What features look familiar? Different? Strange?
15. What question do you have about the book and how would you answer them?

This exercise is designed to teach us how to "read" a book. This set of questions takes us through the book, teaching us different ways to look at a book; as a physical object that holds clues to its existence, through the time frame of authorship and publication, and how readers did or did not use the book through signs of annotation and marginalia.

I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise. When the week is over and I return to WVU I plan to share this with the Curator. It would be a great exercise to incorporate into class visits. Many of these questions can be found in the Rare Book Pedagogy Module (see links) designed and used at WVU for the integration of primary source material into course work by students as well as faculty. The short format, presented by this exercise, would be particularly useful for teaching secondary students the way rare book librarians look at a book.