Middlebury College Library gratefully accepts gifts and contributions for the development of its collections. Especially valuable are books and journals that fill existing gaps and that support the curriculum. Gifts are treated as new acquisitions and thus are evaluated by the same standards applied to new purchases to safeguard quality, consistency, and relevance to the needs of the College.
Guidelines for Donating Material
Academic libraries have varied and specific needs that frequently exclude items people usually wish to donate, such as: standard editions of classic works, which usually duplicate holdings; textbooks, as they quickly become outdated; and books printed on paper too brittle to make them usable. Rare books, scholarly works, or works on little-known topics often enhance academic collections.
The College shares your concern that gift material actually will be used by students and faculty. Therefore, if you are considering donating to the library, we urge you first to contact the Collection Development Librarian to speak about the usefulness of a proposed gift. Upon receipt of your donation, you will be asked to complete a Library Donor Record Form.
Joe Toth
Collection Development Librarian
802-443-5440
jtoth@middlebury.edu
Acknowledgement and Receipt
The Library acknowledges each gift with a letter and gift receipt. Because of the volume of gifts that we receive and the subsequent labor involved in processing them, the library will not provide donors with an itemized list of the materials donated.
Ownership
Books and other library materials given to Middlebury College Library become the property of the College. The Library will add to its collections only gift material that supports the research and teaching mission of the College. Remaining gift material may be sold or discarded by the Library.
Tax Issues
All material gifts to Middlebury College are considered non-cash charitable donations. Prospective book donors often wish to know about the tax status of their gift and are frequently interested in having their gift appraised for tax deduction purposes. Because of legal restrictions, the library is unable to provide appraisals. Donors of gifts with an estimated value between $500 and $5,000 should read IRS publication 526, Charitable Contributions and/or publication 561, Determining the Value of Donated Property, both available from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service. Donors of gifts exceeding $5,000 in value also should read these publications and should discuss tax considerations with an attorney or an accountant. An appraisal is required to substantiate a tax deduction of more than $5,000 for a non-cash gift.
Please note that once your gift enters our processing workflow, we can no longer accommodate an appraiser; therefore, if you are considering a tax deduction and wish to have your collection appraised, you should do so prior to making the donation.
Bookplates and Memorials
Middlebury College is pleased to grant requests that names be added to bookplates inserted in donated books (or those purchased with donated funds) accepted into the collection. These plates may bear the donor's name and/or the names of those in whose honor or memory the gift is made.