Options for the disposal of unwanted donations

Donations of biomedical books and journals frequently duplicate the holdings of a receiving library. A decision must then be made concerning the distribution of the material to other libraries that may need it. What options are available to the librarian? Are many volumes of valuable material destroyed each year because libraries lack the necessary staff, space, or money to distribute donated materials? Are libraries restricted in choice of methods for distribution or unaware of available options? A survey questionnaire was mailed to 150 health sciences libraries in the spring of 1988 to determine the various methods used to dispose of unwanted gift materials. A total of 113 responses was received (75% return rate). This paper reports the results and discusses some of the creative methods used by receiving libraries to place unneeded materials. Statistical comparisons are included for the methods used by academic, hospital, and other types of health sciences libraries.