If you’re interested in donating your archival materials or rare books, a good first step is to contact Hillary Kativa, Head of Special Collections. The department’s curatorial team evaluates each potential donation to ensure the gift aligns with our collection strengths and desired growth areas. Potential donors can learn more about our collection strengths in the department’s Collection Development policy. If the curatorial team decides to accept the donation, you’ll work with a member of the team to complete a Deed of Gift form. Please note that we cannot provide valuations or appraisals.
Once you’ve donated your materials, our expert cataloging and archival processing staff begin to arrange those materials and add written descriptions of them to our online catalog and archival finding aid database, which helps researchers all over the world find out about these important resources. We store these collections in a secure facility and monitor the space to ensure that these materials are properly preserved. Over time, some of the materials you donate may be digitized and be added in whole or in part through our digital collections portal, which is freely available and accessible to the public. If you’d like to learn more about donating your materials, please contact us! We also invite you to learn more about donating to the Main Collection held by the Library.