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Cornish College of the Arts

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Gift Policy

Contents:

Who to Contact
How it Works
What We Accept (and do not accept...)
Gift Policy
Acknowledgment/Receipt
Donor Recognition
Gift Selection
Tax Information and Appraisals
Where to Deliver your Gift

Who to Contact

Materials for the Library collection:

Monetary gifts for the Library Fund:

How it Works

Some of the best titles in the library have been donated and we welcome gifts. Donating books, scores, etc. is generally a straight-forward process. Just contact the library director to discuss your donation. Please understand that we need to ask questions about the material to determine if it's appropriate for the collection.

All donations are subject to review. We consider subject relevance to the collection, physical condition and available storage space.

It is especially helpful if you can provide us with a list of titles you wish to donate so we can check to see what we already own.

Donations need to be delivered to the college since we do not have staff available to drive to people's homes. However, in certain circumstances where someone cannot drive we have made special arrangements.

Once accepted, a gift is usually added to the collection, although at some point any item may be sold to a dealer to raise money for other library titles or traded for other library titles. (See Gift Policy below.)

We do not hold book sales so we try not to accept materials we cannot use. If we discover any unneeded titles in a donation they are usually sold to a book dealer as soon as possible. If we can't sell a title we will put it on a "free" table for the students and faculty.

What We Accept (and do not accept...)

I. Subjects:

Visual and performing arts. Specifically: Art, Dance, Design, Music, Performance Production and Theater. We also collect materials in the Humanities and Sciences (General History, Literature, General Sciences, and Social Sciences), but since space is limited, we are more selective of these titles.

II. Condition:

Materials need to be in good, clean condition (no writing on pages, no musty smell, no yellowed, brittle, or torn pages.)

III. Formats we accept:

IV. Formats we do not accept:

Exceptions for these formats may be made if the material in question has special relevance, either to the library collection or to Cornish's history, and can be easily converted to a usable format.

V. Please Note:

Cornish Library is a working college collection that is used heavily by students. The Library cannot function as archives for personal papers, artists' works or personal book collections that require special housing. The Library also does not have a special facility for rare books and manuscripts. If you have material that is relevant to Cornish's history please talk to the Library Director about the Cornish Archives, which is a separate collection at the University of Washington.

If you have something not addressed here, please call the Library Director at 206-726-5040 to discuss.

Gift Policy

Upon receipt, all gift materials become the property of Cornish College of the Arts Library. Cornish Library reserves the right to determine retention, location, cataloging treatment and other considerations relating to the use and disposition of gifts. Materials not selected for addition to the collection may be sold, donated to students or faculty, recycled, discarded or otherwise disposed. Proceeds from the sale of any unselected items are used to purchase additional titles for the Cornish Library.

Acknowledgment/Receipt

Each gift to the the Cornish Library is acknowledged with a letter and reported to the Cornish Office of Institutional Advancement. Acknowledgments typically include the date of receipt and a brief description of the gift. We recommend that our donors prepare an inventory list and include a copy with their donations.

Donor Recognition

If desired, the library can insert bookplates with the donor's name. Exceptions are made for certain formats or rare or fragile materials. Some donors prefer not to be publicly recognized. Please advise the library of your preference.

Gift Selection

Although we try to only accept titles we can use, some gifts (like boxes of unidentified titles) have to be evaluated after delivery to the library. Each gift item is reviewed for addition to the collection by trained staff and subject specialist librarians. At that point we decide which volumes are added. Because of work load, we are not able to notify donors of each title's disposition or return items not added to our collection.

Tax Information & Appraisals

Some donors require a receipt for tax purposes. We provide an acknowledgment letter which functions as a receipt of goods, but does not include an appraisal of fair market value.

Each donor is responsible for determining their personal tax obligations and whether their gift requires appraisal. We do not appraise gifts, but we can give you a list of qualified independent appraisers in the area. The IRS recommends that the appraisal of books, "should be done by a specialized appraiser."

For more information consult IRS publication 561 entitled Determining the Value of Donated Property. If you have Internet access you can view it at http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p561.pdf on the Web (requires Adobe Acrobat to view and print) or you can call 800-TAX-FORM (800-829-3676) 24 hours a day to have one mailed.

From IRS Form 561:

Consult the form directly for full details and required documentation.

Where to Deliver Your Gift

Please make arrangements with the Library prior to dropping off gifts. We have very limited space and need to discuss the contents and accept the gift before delivery can be made. When packing boxes, please enclose a note with the name and address of the person, estate, organization, company, or other agency donating the material. This enables the Library to send a letter of acknowledgment. Mark delivery containers "LIBRARY GIFT."

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