The Bates College Library’s primary purpose, through its collections housed in the George and Helen Ladd Library and the Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library, is to support the teaching and research needs of the Bates College community and to document the history and special research interests of the College.  To fulfill this mission, we are happy to consider gifts of books and other library materials, with the understanding that these materials become the property of the College.

Subject specialists, the Director of The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library and/or the Associate College Librarian for Collection Management are solely responsible for decisions regarding ultimate disposition of donated materials.  Library staff also reserve the right to refuse a gift outright based on content and/or condition.

Our experience in recent years suggests that working scholarly collections of subjects that have been a part of the Bates College curriculum are very likely to duplicate our existing collection and are thus not needed. In addition, the Bates library generally will not consider the following types of materials:

1. Those in poor physical condition
2. Superseded or outdated content
3. Individual issues or volumes of journals or newspapers
4. Content outside of our collection scope
5. Those that duplicate current local holdings

Donations will be documented by a deed of gift. The Library is unable to provide any valuation of a gift-in-kind nor are we able to provide compensation for shipping of gifted materials.  If you require an appraisal, please contact a private dealer.

As part of the Course Reserves Program, the library acquires at least one copy of every required course textbook and makes them available to students for a minimum of 2 hours.  The library does not accept donations of additional copies due to space limitations.

If you have any questions about this policy or would like to discuss the donation of materials, please contact Krystie Wilfong, Associate College Librarian for Collection Management & Scholarly Communications (kwilfong@bates.edu, 207 786-6270) or Pat Webber, Director of The Edmund S. Muskie Archives and Special Collections Library (muskie@bates.edu, 207 786-6354).