Sandra and SERIALST,

This is coming up for us more and more, and yes I would say it's a very
gray area.  Though we don't have a formal policy in place, here are my
informal thoughts:

1. If a publisher (or society, university department, association,
whatever) wants to donate a subscription to the library (whether the title
is free or usually costs money), that's OK.

2. If an individual (perhaps a faculty member) wants to pay for a
subscription and donate it to the library, that's OK if:

a. there is one subscription price for all kinds of subscribers, or
b. if there is more than one subscription price (e.g., a personal and an
institutional price), the donor pays the rate the library would normally
pay on its own.

So if a professor wants to buy copies (or gets review copies, or her
department pays for them) at the individual or personal rate, it isn't OK
to donate them to the library.  If that professor is willing to pay the
institutional rate, then it's OK.

Now the other concern, once the price is out of the way, is how much you
trust that the gift will keep coming, whether or not you want to rely on
that person to remember to renew each year, etc.  If you have the staff to
deal with them, gifts can be great.  But I suspect your question had more
to do with the ethics of accepting the gift rather than the practicalities.

Kim Maxwell

_______________________________________
Kim Maxwell
Serials Acquisitions Librarian
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
MIT Libraries, Room 14E-210
77 Massachusetts Ave.
Cambridge, MA 02139-4307
phone: 1-617-253-7028
fax:   1-617-253-2464
email: kmaxwell@mit.edu

At 01:39 PM 8/30/2004 -0500, you wrote:
>I'm fairly new to Serials and I have a question regarding gift donations
>from faculty.  Is there a "gray" area involved if a faculty member
>subscribes to a journal and then "donates" it to the library.
>
>I've had several faculty members ask me about gift donations and I wasn't
>sure if this is considered a gray area.
>
>Thanks in advance.
>
>Sandra Thomas
>Serials/Circulation/ILL Librarian
>Henry G. Bennett Library
>Southeastern Oklahoma State University
>1405 N. 4th Ave PMB 4189
>Durant, OK  74701
>580-745-2933