Gift/Donation Policy

The Stonehill Library welcomes gifts of current scholarly materials which are appropriate to the Library’s collections. We appreciate our donors’ intention to enhance the quality of the Stonehill Library’s resources through their gifts. Especially welcome are items that supplement the Stonehill College curriculum and will benefit student research. The Library is subject to space, staff, and resource limitations which will impact our ability to accept gifts of materials; therefore, we reserve the right to determine whether or not to add donated materials to the collection. Donations are evaluated using the same selection criteria that are used for purchased library materials.

In general, the Library does not accept the following as gifts:

• Materials that duplicate existing holdings
• Textbooks
• Popular trade publications more than two years old
• Periodicals
• Outdated media formats such as VHS, LPs, cassettes, etc.
• Materials in poor physical condition
• Materials heavily marked by pen or pencil
• Materials discarded by other libraries
• Photocopied materials or copies of original audio/video productions
• Gifts on which a donor places restrictions that will negatively affect access to and use of the materials.

At the request of the donor, a descriptive note may be added to the Library Catalog records. This note enables a keyword search in Hillsearch to retrieve a list of specific items donated. Notes are reserved for special cases, such as identifying a significant collection of items or acknowledging a donation made in memoriam. The Collection Development Librarian will discuss such requests with the donor and approve the insertion of a note and its text.

If you are interested in donating materials to the Library, please contact the Library Collections Group, at librarycollectionsgroup@stonehill.edu or at 508-565-1329, prior to delivering materials to the Library. For large collections, the Library may request a list of items for review before accepting any materials. Donations of alumni memorabilia, rare books, manuscripts, or other significant materials may be accepted after consultation with the Director of Archives and Historical Collections. Stonehill does not cover the costs of shipping donations to our site.

In accordance with United States tax regulations, the Library is not permitted to make appraisals of gifts. Gift acknowledgement letters can be created upon request; this letter will include a brief description and an exact count of items donated, but will not list each item nor give an appraisal. If a donor requires a valuation of the materials for IRS reporting purposes, it is the responsibility of the donor to arrange for an independent appraisal by a qualified professional prior to the donation and to keep records of the items donated and their value.

Items that do not fall within the scope of the Library’s collections will be sent to Better World Books, providing revenue for the acquisition of new Library materials.