Using the Library: Donating Materials

Please get in touch if you would like to donate material to the library. It’s helpful for us to know in advance what you are planning to donate, because not everything is suitable for our collection. You can get in touch with us through LibChat (via Locate or Libguides) or via customerservices.lib@coventry.ac.uk

As a general guide we would welcome as donations:

• extra copies of current books in demand
• recently published materials that fit our teaching or research profile
• rare items that are suitable for special collections
• archive material that fits into our archive collection policy

Unfortunately, we are not able to take:

• old superseded editions of textbooks
• duplicates of existing holdings where we don’t need any further copies
• journals/periodicals
• items in poor condition
• large collections that we can’t accommodate  
• items that don’t fit our teaching/research profile

Accepted donations will be evaluated by a subject specialist, and we reserve the right to dispose of any items we feel unsuitable for the collection. If we don’t add an item to stock, we will either offer these free to Library users or send them to our second-hand book partner. Any money we get from the disposal of items will be reinvested in the Library. On rare occasions we may dispose of the item to waste according to university waste and recycling policies.

If we can’t take your item(s), you could also consider the following:

• Local charity shops or online books charities like Better World Books
• Local second-hand book shops
• Selling online. There are lots of sites for this including Amazon, Ebay, ziffit and Magpie
• Other local libraries e.g. Coventry Public Library