A Holistic Assessment of Spanish Gift Books

Abstract

Library gifts-in-kind are a mixed blessing: their potential utility must be weighed against the resources required to add them to a collection. Understanding the value such materials can bring to the library is essential. In academic libraries, donations from faculty members may be assumed to be more appropriate and useful additions to the collection. This evaluation used multiple methods to assess the value of several hundred gift books donated by a professor in support of the Spanish program at Concordia University. Parameters examined include age, language, subjects and their relation to the curriculum, usage, and availability in other libraries.T he value of gift materials to a library is not a given: their worth to the institution should be assessed before a decision is made to accept them. In an era where physical collections in general are increasingly under scrutiny for their utility in all types of libraries, donated items should be subject to a similar level of evaluation. Such assessment usually begins when materials are first offered to a library. Library gift policies can prevent donations of unsuitable materials or ensure that the library is not obligated to keep donated items. 1 For academic libraries, it is fairly simple to specify what types of material will not be accepted, such as textbooks, popular fiction, and magazines and journals. Many gifts-inkind, though, are less easily categorized as appropriate. While some will prove to be desirable and useful supplements to the library's own purchases, others are less useful due to factors such as age, audience level, format, duplication of existing holdings, language, subject areas, and alignment with the organization's needs and collection development strategy. It is not always straightforward to determine the potential value of gifts to an institution at the time of donation.A particular source of gifts-in-kind in academic libraries is donations made by faculty members, both current and retired. Given the importance of maintaining good relationships with faculty, such gifts may require tactful negotiation and communication of gift policies to ensure that only materials that fall within the scope of library collections and are in appropriate formats and condition are accepted. However, gifts from faculty that do meet such conditions may well fill gaps and contribute useful works to the library, due to their subject expertise and understanding of curricular and research needs. At Concordia University, many faculty members periodically donate materials to the library. This inquiry has been undertaken to evaluate a large quantity of book donations made over a number of years by an individual faculty member from the Spanish program, with the goal of determining the value of these gifts to the institution, using multiple assessment methods. BackgroundConcordia University is a large research institution located on two campuses in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, with over 36,000 undergraduate and nearly 10,000