Review of the literature
“The literature on gift materials in libraries is limited and provides little data on the use,
usefulness, and cost of the gift materials in libraries” [3]. This is particularly true for usage
studies that compare the use of gift materials to non-gift materials. The literature does include
some anecdotal data regarding librarians’ impressions concerning how useful gifts are.
Robinson has reported that out of 47 Tennessee academic libraries surveyed, 71% felt that
“most gift books are not useful” [3]. Dole has suggested that gifts should be considered a
benefit “if the value of the material acquired exceeds the costs involved in acquiring them,
andifthe materials fit the library’s collection development policy” [4]. Quantitative methods
can establish the relative costs of processing purchased materials and gifts. Because, by
definition, gifts do not incur a purchase price, under most circumstances the cost to a library
for adding gifts should be less than purchased materials. In addition, libraries sometimes
receive out-of-print materials as gifts that would otherwise be very costly for the library to
purchase. Still, sometimes processing gifts has added costs (putting nameplates on books,
maintaining files on donations, corresponding with donors, itemizing and evaluating donated
items, etc.). The most difficult aspect of comparing gifts and purchased materials is defining
“value.” As previously noted, the value of any item added to a library’s general collection
needs to take into account the actual usage of the item. In deciding which gifts are added to
352 R. Kairis / Libr. Coll. Acq. & Tech. Serv. 24 (2000) 351–359
a collection, this emphasizes the need (at least to some extent) to consider the anticipated use
of the item.