Donations and gifts of materials
The Library welcomes offers of donations that support the University's teaching, learning and research. As space, staffing and processing resources are limited, we assess donations in advance and can only accept materials that meet our current collection needs.
Before offering a donation
Please contact the Library before sending or delivering any materials. For substantial donations, prospective donors must provide an electronic list of the items, including sufficient bibliographic details to allow us to assess their suitability against existing holdings and current academic priorities. We may be unable to consider substantial donations without this information.
Donated materials should:
- fall within the scope of the Library Collections Policy;
- offer academic value and make a meaningful contribution to the Library's collections;
- be unique, rare or in high demand, unless they fill a clear gap in our holdings; and
- be in good physical condition and a usable format.
Donors may also need to identify funding in advance for delivery, cataloguing and other processing costs.
Conditions of acceptance
If a donation is accepted, ownership passes to the University. The Library may decide where and when materials are processed and housed, and cannot guarantee that items will be kept together or placed in a particular collection.
The Library reserves the right to dispose of, sell or donate materials elsewhere if they are unsuitable, damaged, duplicated, redundant or no longer required. Donors cannot place restrictions on the future location, processing timescale or disposal of donated materials.
Materials we do not normally accept
Donations are frequently declined when they include:
- older textbooks or outdated research materials;
- items that are torn, mouldy, annotated or otherwise in poor condition;
- obsolete formats, such as VHS tapes or audio cassettes;
- duplicate copies of materials already held by the Library;
- incomplete or duplicative runs of printed journals and periodicals; or
- unsolicited collections from house or office clearances.
Unsolicited donations are not normally accepted and may be refused or disposed of. Exceptions may be considered for materials that are rare or in high demand.
For further information, please see the Library Collections Policy.
The Modern Records Centre
The Modern Records Centre (MRC) will continue to accept donations and gifts to enhance the archive collections providing they fall within the collecting policy and MRC’s required conditions are met. Please contact .