Glasgow Women’s Library

Glasgow Women’s Library is a unique resource in Scotland, and houses a huge collection of materials by, for and about women. Since the Library has no budget for materials, the collection has grown over the years through the sheer generosity of its users, members and supporters, who have donated thousands of items ranging from books and journals to banners and T-shirts. Donations are always very welcome, as they help the library to keep growing and developing.

This policy offers some general guidance on donating materials to the library. Library staff will also be happy to answer any questions or offer further guidance if required.

Guidance on donating materials to the library collection

All offers of materials are greatly appreciated and receive careful consideration by library staff. In particular, we’re interested in receiving the following types of materials:

• Hardback books
• Non fiction on issues such as violence against women, women’s history, feminism, women’s activism, women and politics, women and work, women artists, lesbians and LGBT issues etc.
• Scottish fiction by women
• Women’s drama, play texts etc.
• Pre-recorded DVDs and CDs
• Historical and contemporary ephemera and archive materials from women’s groups and organisations, such as posters, badges, t-shirts, leaflets and postcards
• Complete runs of women’s journals
• Local history of women, such as oral history interviews, photographs etc.

In general, due to shortage of space, we’re unfortunately unable to accept the following types of materials:

• Books, journals or other materials that are already in stock (unless we need replacement or extra copies)
• Textbooks, course-books or course materials (unless they are for a relevant subject such as Women’s Studies or Gender Studies)
• Materials that are in poor condition
• Music audio tapes
• Books and resources that fall out-with the library’s areas of interest
• Popular women’s magazines such as Glamour, Company etc, or general lifestyle magazines such as Empire, The List etc.
• Books that are out-dated and therefore no longer useful, such as old travel guides or old reference books
• Newspapers or newspaper articles (unless they are old, very rare and about a relevant subject e.g. coverage of suffragettes)

However, there are always exceptions to any rule, so please check with library staff!

It is useful to library staff if you are able to provide us with a list of titles for books, and title, issue and volume numbers for journals, as this allows us to check if we already have the materials in stock or whether we need replacement or extra copies.

Due to space limitations, unfortunately we may not be able to accept all donations offered to the library. However, in some cases we may be able to suggest other relevant sister organisations where donations might be welcome.

In addition, we cannot guarantee that all donations will be included or remain permanently in the collection. We will aim to dispose of any materials that we cannot use in the most appropriate way, such as by offering them to other libraries or sister organisations, selling them in book sales or recycling them.

Large donations of materials

Some women have donated their entire collection of books to the library in their will, or donated a special collection on a specific subject area. We are delighted to accept such large donations and keen to recognise their important contribution to the library collection. Donations will normally be integrated into the main library collection. However, exceptions may be made in the case of archival, special or valuable collections.

Once we have our catalogue up and running, we will be able to acknowledge large donations in the catalogue records, if desired. We can also acknowledge large donations through ‘Ex libris’ bookplates.