Abstract—From the time the Reverend John Harvard donated his collection of books
in 1638 to start the library at the newly established Harvard University [1], gifts have
played an important role in the development of collections in U.S. academic and
special libraries. Today, gifts are still vital to most libraries as publication costs rise
and book budgets shrink. Over the years, much has been written on material gifts to
libraries, from their use in collection building to the practical points of handling gifts
and donors in the technical services area. Culled from the pool of literature, this
annotated bibliography is a collection of many of the most useful and informative
sources written on the various aspects of gifts in libraries. © 1999 Elsevier Science
Ltd