STATEMENT OF INTENTION | CONDITIONS | RESPONSIBILITY | IMPLEMENTATION

City of Rockingham Information and Library Service (RILS)
Policy on Resources donated to the Libraries

1) Statement of intention and background to the policy 

1.1) The City of Rockingham is fortunate in that it is frequently offered generous donations of resources.  The donor usually intends the resources be added to the collections in the City’s Libraries for the benefit of all City Of Rockingham Library patrons. 

1.2) This policy seeks to make clear the City of Rockingham Libraries’ policy on accepting the donation of resources.

1.3) It is not intended to cover the donation of equipment, money, art works or other donations that may be offered to the Libraries. 

1.4) There is considerable cost to the Rockingham Information and Library Service in processing donated items and making them available in the collection.  This will be a consideration in making decisions about including any particular donated item in the collections. 

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2) Conditions under which donations are accepted

2.1) All donations to any of the City of Rockingham Libraries are accepted on the basis that the particular Library retains the absolute right to decide what will or will not be included in the collection. 

2.2) All Donations are subject to the same selection criteria as resources that are purchased for the collection. 

2.3) At the point of receiving the donation the following will be explained to the donor.  If a decision is made not to include the offered donated resources in the collection, donors have two choices:

2.3.1) Agree that the books can be disposed of in any way deemed appropriate by the Library (This may include but not be limited to being sold to raise funds for the Libraries, given to another library or donated to a worthy cause such as Save the Children).  On rare occasions it may be necessary to discard the item completely. 

2.3.2) The unwanted items may be returned to the Donor.  This option is only available if decided by the donor at the time of donation. The donor must supply contact details and agree to collect the unwanted items.  These will be noted with the date of receipt of the donation. 

2.4) A written acknowledgement of a donation will be made on request from the donor. 

2.5) Any queries about donations under the Commonwealth Government’s Cultural Gifts Program must be referred in the first instance to the Chief City Librarian 

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3) Responsibility for decisions about donations

Decisions about accepting any donations into the Libraries collections will ultimately be the responsibility of the Chief City Librarian.  This responsibility will be delegated to individual Librarians or other staff within the individual libraries. 

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4) Implementation

4.1) A copy of the Policy will be circulated to each City of Rockingham Library and made available to patrons on request. 

4.2) Anyone who donates books and actually makes contact with Library staff about the donation will have this explained to them at the time of making the donation. 

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