Donations to the Library

The library director reserves the discretion to accept or decline a gift to the library based on its artistic value, educational merit, relevance, and whether or not the gift is appropriate for the collection. There are several factors under consideration when accepting gifts, such as shelf space issues, technical support, and usefulness to the collection. The library director handles the negotiation of gifts with the donors. Donors are expected to bring the material to the library. Materials may be brought in person by appointment or shipped to the library. Often, the relevance of the donated materials to the library’s collection cannot be determined until the materials are evaluated individually. The library reserves the right to determine the dispensation of donated materials. Included in the broad category of materials that are not added to the collection are:

  • LP recordings, reel-to-reel tapes, 8-track tapes, cassette tapes
  • Duplicate books
  • Photocopies

The library staff is not able to appraise materials for donation. Donations may be absorbed into the Conservatory collection immediately, placed in storage for future determination, or rejected for not aligning with the Conservatory's mission and goals. All gifts, once accepted, become the property of the library, and donations will only be accepted if there is a complete transfer of ownership. Once accepted, gifts may be cataloged and prepared for circulation among library patrons or be stored in a storage facility until inclusion in the collection is feasible. Gifts deemed out of scope may be disposed of or sold at an occasional library sale. The profits of the sale will benefit the library.

If you have an artifact that you would like to donate to the Albert Alphin library, please contact archives@berklee.edu.