I have had enough experience with libraries and librarians to have
some insight into donating collections of items to public libraries.

Be very careful of what institution you donate to, unless you also
donate a large amount of money to the same institution designated
to support your collection.  I know of several libraries that have
extensive collections that have been donated to them.  These
collections of 78 & 33 rpm records, sheet music, piano rolls,
recital programs, newspaper articles, serials, photographs and
other items sit in boxes in storage rooms.

The libraries are stretched, financially, so incredibly thin that
there is no money to pay anyone to catalog hundreds, thousands or
hundreds of thousands of items into the accession list, or library
database.  The items sit in storage with no one having any idea of
what is in the collection or any way to pay someone to find out.

Many times these collections sit there long enough that the library
grows to the point of not having room to keep them and with no money
to catalog them, they are sold at the next book sale to raise money
for the library.

If you plan to donate a collection to a library, please make sure you
prepare for the real use of your materials in today's fiscal realities.
Here are some suggestions:

 - Before you donate, make sure the library wants the material and
wants it badly enough to not sell it off.

 - Make sure they have the money to pay staff to add it to the active
collection.

 - Give them enough money to do this if they do not have the budget
to do it already.

 - Catalog the collection yourself and put the catalog into a digital
format that would be standard software easily imported into the
library's system.

 - If possible find the Library of Congress catalog system for the
items you have to donate and use their format for your cataloging
tasks.  It is less likely that your prospective library uses the
antiquated Dewey cataloging system which is usually used in smaller
school libraries.

 - If you have the time and money to do so, scan the items into digital
format yourself before you donate the originals.  That way your library
will be able to use your materials more readily in their system or on
their Internet web site, or they may be able to raise money to support
your collection by charging for internet access to scanned items.

Anyone donating a collection of historical documents to a library does
not want their collection moldering in a storage room for decades with
no possible access available to anyone interested in the documents.
Also they certainly do not want their items sold off by the box-full to
the people that happen to show up at a junk book sale.

D.L. Bullock
http://www.pianoworld.us/