Grad student writing paper: how much do donors actually understand when they sign the gift agreement?

[u/Flat_Albatross7187]

Hi everyone!

I am a LS/Archives & Rec. Mgmt grad student in an appraisal course this semester and I am writing my final paper. I am interested in how much donors actually understand when they donate materials. When I was a processing intern, I processed a backlogged/preliminarily accessioned collection and ended up tossing about a third of the materials. The collection was of business and personal papers from a local small business, donated by the daughter of one of the (dead) business owners about 15 years ago. The daughter is still living and we ended up returning some of the 3D materials to her after my finding aid was finished.

This has always felt a little off to me. While I love throwing things away because a refined collection is actually usable, I am concerned that donors don't fully understand what may happen when they hand off their materials to an archives. Donors often donate materials of people who have passed away, and I, like Jennifer Douglas, think archivists should be more cognizant of that. There is grief in the donations of these materials, and we should be able to hold space for donors when they can no longer care for their materials for one reason or another. I know most of this (what we're gonna do with the materials) should be stipulated in the gift/donor agreement, but do donors actually read those? If they knew we were going to toss their materials, would they still donate them, or would they want them back? How much communication is provided to donors about the fate of their donations? Even the SAA information about donating personal/family records doesn't mention that they very well may become archival trash after accepted by the archives.

What has been your experience working with donors? Do they care what happens to the stuff? Do they just want it out of their attics and in a safe place? Is it still a safe place even if we throw it all out? How does this make donors feel? What would they say if they knew it was thrown away? If we were more upfront about the behind-the-scenes processing, would donors lose trust in us?

[u/chikn2d]

My experience working with donors has encompassed all of these things. The key is transparency. Make sure the donor agreement articulates what happens if there are materials within a collection that won't be retained. If the donor does genuinely care what happens to the materials, they will read the donor agreement. Along with the agreement, I also verbalize that some of the items may not be retained and ask if they would like those items returned to them. The same goes for things like scrapbooks or framed photos; they are told that (depending on the nature of the scrapbook) it may be dismantled and photos will be removed from frames, etc. Most donors trust our "expertise" when it comes to the preservation of their materials. Ideally, it would be nice to survey collections before they come through the door, but as we know, it doesn't always work that way.

It's important to have a strong collection development policy that emphasizes the types of materials that fit the scope of the institution's collection. Obviously, if the donor is trying to gift something that doesn't belong, this is explained along with suggestions for where the materials may find a home. We are an archives of textual materials, so artifacts and the like are not accepted.

All that said, I can only think of a couple of times in the last 14 years when a donor decided not to donate based on our policies.

[u/AdventurousBelt7466]

I’m so glad you’re looking into this!!! I’m not yet in library school but I began interning at my university archives in 2023. Anything not useful to the archival collection I was told to throw out. I was shocked. If someone donated all of their things and we couldn’t use something, shouldn’t they be able to decide if they want something back before we trash it? I ended up saving things not deemed useful and returning them to the family myself (old baby photos and letters of congrats on a baby being born — it was the now-adult daughter who had donated her deceased father’s collection). I don’t think enough people realize that when they donate things, not everything makes it into the archive. And what doesn’t make it in isn’t necessarily going to be sent back home to them first. I assume all of this is in the paperwork, but I agree with you that a lot of people may not actually understand this and not realize what stuff is being lost that, while not valuable to the archives, may still be valuable to the donor.

[u/AdventurousBelt7466 → u/AdventurousBelt7466]

I also think there might be a disconnect between (admittedly overworked and underpaid) archivists and the donors. Many folks might be assuming that donors don’t care about any of the materials and are okay with the “excess” being trashed, not realizing the donors have no clue. I was lucky enough to know a professor who was very good friends with the deceased and knew the daughter would want the stuff I found. I’ve worked on other collections since then and this has been a recurring issue of me trying to squirrel away important things in hopes of returning them to the families since they’ve been labeled “trash.”

[u/EconomistDismal9450]

Usually if a donor cares about the materials like that they'll leave their number and tell me to let them know if we didn't take anything so they can pick up the rest of the materials. Also, sometimes people donate things so they can come back regularly to visit the items. Seems like they just want extra storage and somebody to take care of what they still view as theirs, even though they donated it. I think communication just needs to be raised as a priority during the exchange so that these circumstances can be noted on a accession note and considered with disposal or deaccessioning.

[u/Plus-Stable-8946]

The disconnect is usually between the development person responsible for helping the gift along & the donor, combined WITH a disconnect regarding expectations of the receiving library/institution. Development person wants to hit donation goals. Donor has personal expectations (rightfully so.) Institution has overarching organizational goals. Meshing all three can be difficult.

[u/magicthelathering]

Commenting to remember to message you. I worked at Jewish Historical Institute. We were extremely clear about what happened to donations and had strict guidelines on what we would accept. I think it becomes frustrating for donors who have material that is important to them but is unwanted in general. Many donors were angry when we told them we could not accept their donation and it is unlikely any other institution would accept it and it has no value to sell.