Is Trash a Library's Treasure? A Study of Gifts-in-Kind Practices and Policies Among New York State Libraries

The author of this article sent out surveys to libraries throughout New York State to study gifts-in-kind practices and policies among, primarily, public and academic institutions. The study found that most libraries have a selective or limited gifts-in-kind policy but there were few libraries that never accept gifts-in-kind. In addition, he found that public libraries tended to view gifts-in-kind as potential revenue sources while academic libraries saw it is a form of outreach. In addition, discarding criteria for gifts-in-kind are discussed as well as the lack of hard data being collected by various institutions. Respondents answers were weighed in tables to give an accurate picture of selection and deselection criteria.