I also run a small donation based lending library - in our case, we tend to focus on non-fiction judaica, but we do get some fiction too.
Pretty much the path I take is to make sure that the donor recognizes that we are a library, not an archive. Books need to be appropriate for our purpose (Judaica). In many cases, donors simply want to pass on a pile of unsorted books. When that happens, I make it clear that the books will be sorted, and ones that are not a good fit will be passed on to other organizations (I rarely sell them - usually they go to homeless shelters, hospitals, schools, etc - other places that can use "free" books). The most important thing is for the donors to know that donations will not necessarily end up in circulation - duplicates, worn, or off-target books that won't end up in the collection will be passed on - make sure your donors know this, and (if they care) have some idea as to where the books may end up. Another good option (at least for duplicates) would be to post them here, and see if anyone on this list is interested... (or you could just email me...) -James Messages and opinions expressed on Hasafran are those of the individual author and are not necessarily endorsed by the Association of Jewish Libraries (AJL) =========================================================== Submissions for Ha-Safran, send to: Hasafran @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu SUBscribing, SIGNOFF commands send to: Listproc @ lists.acs.ohio-state.edu Questions, problems, complaints, compliments;-) send to: galron.1 @ osu.edu Ha-Safran Archives: Current: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/maillist.html History: http://www.mail-archive.com/hasafran%40lists.acs.ohio-state.edu/history.html AJL HomePage http://www.JewishLibraries.org
