Policy changes in 2022 suspended almost all gifts accepted for the Libraries’ main circulating collection, which includes Main, Law and Curric. The bulk of gifts for cataloguing are now for Special Collections and University Archives (SCUA). We still see small collections of gifts sporadically for Main, Law and Curric via SCUA and some subject librarians.
Please check with the Gifts Coordinator if you have any questions.
Gifts that are received via Acquisitions are either
- Technically considered Endowment Fund Purchases (holdings 008 Method of acquisition(7) is coded p-Purchase). Acquisitions staff will affix gift book plates as needed, as material is received, including shelf-ready material received from GOBI/YBP. An automated process will periodically add endowment fund notes to the corresponding Bib records. If the material needs to be kept in department for Metadata staff to catalogue, the gift plate should already be affixed to the book, and there will be nothing further for the cataloguer to do.
For more information, refer to the Endowment Fund Purchases section.
- Unsolicited Gifts (holdings 008 Method of acquisition(7) is coded g-Gift).
These will be handled by either Acquisitions staff responsible for serial check-in, or the Gifts Coordinator. Metadata cataloguers will likely only need to see an unsolicited gift if there's a decision to retain a tile not yet held, and these should come directly from the Gifts Coordinator.
For more information, refer to the Unsolicited section.
All gifts coming directly from the Gifts Coordinator will have a purple gift flag. A yellow "Special Collections Cataloguing Work Slip" will be included for Special Collections gifts and a blue "Archives" slip will be included for Archives gifts.
- Special Collections: All gifts catalogued for Special Collections must have a 561 field note in the catalogue record. The wording of the gift note is indicated on the purple gift flag. Example: “Gift of Gordon Fulton, 2022.”; “Gift of anonymous donor, 2023.”; “Gift of Estate of Erich P. Schwandt, 2021.”
- Archives: Most gifts catalogued for Archives will not need have a gift note in the catalogue record. However, if a gift note is required for an arc location, then it will be added as a 590 field note, as indicated on the purple gift flag along with the wording of the gift note. Example: “Gift of Aaron Devor, 2022.”; “Gift of anonymous donor, 2023.”
- Main, Law, Curric: Gifts rarely require a gift note for Main, Law or Curric. The purple gift flag will identify if there is to be a 590 field note. The wording of the gift note follows the same format as SCUA, example: “Gift of Patricia Parker, 2021.” We do not add any anonymous gift notes for Main, Law, or Curric material.
*Please note that older purple gift flags did not indicate when to add the 561 and 590 fields. If an item has an older purple gift flag, a white flag indicating the field and wording of the gift note will be included (and a gift plate if required). If there is no white flag, there is no gift note and no gift plate.
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