Donations Ahoy: Managing Unexpected Additions to the Library

As a very (very) small library, St. Leo School isn't usually getting much in the way of a collection expansion. Since I've been here, I've pursued questions about budgeting and new acquisitions, and met with the general blank stares or uncomfortable silences that mean "we'd like to help you, bright-eyed new librarian, but we don't spend money on that." Which is understandable in a small parochial school, but still frustrating, especially since I've stepped into a sort of expectation that I come up with new material somewhere, yet not have any way to pay for it.

(For example, I learned last week that the previous librarian did do purchasing runs at Scholastic warehouse events, which sounded great to me! Not so great was the revelation that she just did these on her own, and then submitted expenses to the diocese to be reimbursed. Being a student, I don't have that kind of capital, plus I'm pretty sure the diocese doesn't move very quickly and I don't have three months to wait around on rent money!)

So, after some discussion of how else I'm supposed to get new material in here in response to student demand - Goodwill runs? Osmosis? I will provide, saith the LORD? - I reached the place where most small school and religious librarians probably live: the Donation Drumming-Up Doldrums. This is a joyless and uncomfortable place in which you try to harass people from the parish and school alumni to give you things for free, but also seem like this is a fun community event and they should be excited about it.

Probably later I'll write a whole blog post about the anti-excitement of the Give Me Stuff Please portion of this job, but in the meantime, here's a success story: today, someone responded, and boy in a big way!

All right, I'll admit, it feels good to have all THAT suddenly show up on my doorstep. This donation comes from a retired doctor who, while he never had children who attended this school, is still a member of the parish that runs it and decided that since he no longer uses some of the stodgier portions of his library, he'd be all right donating them. And also some of what he referred to as "kid junk", which turned out to be a small collection of actually rather nice Scholastic reference books and picture books for younger kids (which we are desperately in need of - the average date of publication of our childrens' picture-book materials is around 1970).

The nonfiction offerings are pretty fantastic, although they're also pretty dated (but then again, what in here isn't? I should take pictures of some of our geographical/historical collection for reference later). The biggest triumph is the Time-Life Mysteries of the Unknown collection, which is mostly focused on unexplained phenomena, psychic theories, and so forth; an odd choice for a religious school library, but I've recently had kids in the middle grades looking for books on those kinds of subjects, so it's a well-timed addition, and the series holds up very well in spite of its age.

The other selections are a little more hit-or-miss; there's definitely some interest in historical military business going on in this school, but I'm not sure we needed the full Time-Life Epic of Flight and The Seafarers lines. They're both gorgeous leather-bound sets in very nice condition, though, so if I can find room in ye olde tiny reference section, they'd probably be nice additions in spite of their age.

The historical volumes on the Old West and American History are the most likely to have to be examined for possibly not being processed and added to the collection; they're pretty old (1973 for the Time-Life Old West series) and, while in great condition and very prettily bound, look like they may have some historical inaccuracies or issues with terminology and historical descriptions that are no longer socially acceptable (particularly in regards to Native American peoples). This is one of those weird places where the library definitely needs new reference material, yet still might have to say, "No, I didn't mean that," when provided some. I may also want to go talk to the middle grade teachers to see if they'd be more useful as a classroom set, where an instructor can highlight the useful parts?

Finally, there are quite a few National Geographic volumes of natural landscapes and American vistas, which are also nice but getting less relevant as time distances them (for example, Back Roads America: A Portrait of Her People, published in 1980, is an interesting cultural artifact, but may not be super accurate in terms of current cultural trends).

After a quick run through Amazon average pricing, it looks like this donation is probably about $750-$850, which isn't bad for my first rodeo.

Once I'm done pre-weeding, space is going to be an issue, too. You can see a peek of an empty shelf behind that first picture, but that's the only one in the place, and I don't foresee a lot better luck with getting budgeting for new furniture than new materials. It might be worth it to go through the current reference section's antiquated geographic offerings to see if some of the new donations should be replacements rather than additions, but that's going to take a while with just me to do it!

Now to go learn about tax write-off language and letters of receipt, because I sense one coming in my future...