Donating to The Park Library
[2004 donation of Harper's Weekly (1861-1865) to The Park Library]
The Park Library has guidelines covering donations and gifts to its collections from faculty members, alumni, students, and benefactors. Most importantly, this generosity from our colleagues and friends is warmly welcomed and sincerely appreciated.
Before we go further, an introduction to our School's fund-raising campaign, the School's foundation, and a link to the University's development office is in order.
CURRENT COLLECTIONS
The Park Library greatly appreciates gifts that support the collections and equipment needed to maintain our state-of-the-art facility. Donations to help cover the accelerating costs of subscribing to newspapers, professional journals, and electronic databases are especially appreciated. These subscriptions form the costliest part of our Library's budget.
HISTORICAL COLLECTIONS
Preference is given to materials published prior to 1950 such as:- newspaper centennial and other special editions
- scholarly journals (if our Library does not have the issues offered)
- mass communication research reports
- journalism feature films
- journalism biography, history, advertising, public relations, and photography books
Those early materials are indeed valuable because they are rare.
Our Library is particularly eager to receive gifts books published by our School's current and former faculty members as well as our School's alumni. Approximately 600 books are in this collection. These books are showcased in our Park Library to honor former School of Journalism faculty member Walter Spearman, 1908-1987.
GENERAL GUIDELINES
Please contact Stephanie Brown, Park Library director, if you would like to make a donation. She will determine if the material is appropriate for our collection and if we have the space and the preservation techniques to properly accommodate environmentally sensitive materials. If there is another, more suitable collection willing to accept and process the offered materials, Stephanie will advise you.
If a number of books, serials, papers, etc., are included in any single donation, we urgently request that a complete inventory accompany the gift of the material. Our Library simply doesn't have the staff or time to undertake this essential task.
No one on the Park Library staff is qualified to appraise gifts of materials for tax purposes. There are at least two resources that should help the potential donor determine how to obtain a book appraisal.
- Bookfinder.com can help donors locate the current value of book titles.
- The Antiquarian Booksellers’ Association of America offers a database of book titles and booksellers.
Establishing the value of newspapers and photo collections is difficult at best. Stephanie will work with you if you want to locate knowledgeable appraisers.
In determining the value of gifts to our Library, we consider our Library's total collection development plan, what we have currently in our catalog and what are likely areas for our School's future instruction and research needs. You may search for Park Library books and serials in the University's online catalog.
We are happy to receive inquiries about making donations and gifts to the Park Library.
Stephanie Willen Brown, Park Library Director
UNC-CH School of Journalism and Mass Communication
Carroll Hall, CB# 3365
Chapel Hill, NC 27599
swbrown@unc.edu
(919) 843-8300
July 2009
Gift to The Park Library: 2004
