Information for potential donors
Gifts from our generous friends comprise a very useful part of our existing collections and will continue to be invaluable in our future collection-building efforts. We welcome donated materials that enhance our collections in support of the University’s teaching and research needs. We decline offers of gifts if they unnecessarily duplicate existing holdings, are peripheral to our needs, or come with donor restrictions we cannot honor.
This document is intended to provide the information typically needed by prospective donors to our general collections. The Libraries' Special Collections Department (231-6308) has a separate policy covering their needs.
What we need:
- Financial contributions
- Selected hard cover and high quality paperback books of scientific, scholarly, or artistic substance, that fill a gap in our existing collections relative to the programs they support.
What we generally do not need
- Damaged or underlined books; inspirational literature; superseded textbooks; laboratory and repair manuals; instructor's manuals; college catalogs; workbooks; off prints
- Journals or other serials
- Teaching materials, brochures, or personal and professional files
How to donate books or other materials
Because of our small staff and because in recent years the donations we’ve been offered have heavily duplicated our existing holdings, we ask that donors work with us to ensure in advance that we accept only needed items. Please contact Paul Metz, Director of Collection Management (231-5663; pmetz@vt.edu) as much in advance of your intended donation as possible. We may ask that you compile an inventory of the proposed gifts or allow a subject specialist from the Libraries to visit and select items. Should some of the items you propose to donate not meet our current needs, we will be glad to suggest alternative beneficiaries.
How to make a financial contribution
- You may wish to contribute to our Designed Gifts Program, which allows you to designate the subject discipline(s) in which your contribution will be spent. Please make your check out to the Virginia Tech Foundation and send it to:
University Development
201 Pack Building
Blacksburg, VA 24061-0336 - To make sure your gift is used as intended, please reference Virginia Tech account number 883247 in your letter or on the check itself. In addition to designating a subject discipline for materials, you may indicate the wish to memorialize someone with a book plate.
- The Office of University Development will be glad to discuss with you options for bequests through a will, deferred gifts, endowments, or the gifting of appreciated securities.
- All contributions to the Designed Gift Program are spent in the designated disciplines as soon as appropriate materials can be identified. A book plate is placed inside each book acquired within this program to acknowledge the donor and any individual the donor wishes to memorialize.
- The proceeds of major endowments are devoted to annual purchases of materials, after some reinvestment to offset inflation in the value of the original assets.
Acknowledgement and the tax consequences of giving
- All gifts to the University Libraries are tax-deductible and will be acknowledged. Our letter will confirm the number of donated volumes. Although we cannot prepare inventories, we can acknowledge your gift with reference to an inventory you have prepared.
- If you claim a deduction of more than $5,000 for a non-cash gift, you will need an appraisal. IRS rules make it impossible for us to provide appraisals, but we can help you locate a qualified appraiser.
- We cannot supply or write on bookplates for materials donated to the general collections, but we will be glad to insert any completed book plates you may furnish.
