Support the Library
Thank you for your interest in supporting the School of Theology Library! We are open to all, including BU undergraduates, graduate students, alumni, scholars from other Boston Theological Institute schools, scholars from other Boston Library Consortium institutions, visiting scholars, and the general public.
If you wish to further the mission of our library through a financial donation, you can submit donations at:
Under “Choose Your Cause” please select “Other Fund” from the menu, and then type in “Theology Library” as the fund you’d like to support.
With the Class Gift donation of 2016, the School of Theology Library started building a collection based on the class theme power, privilege, and prophetic witness. The library has already built on that base with new purchases and seeks to expand it in the future. With your donation for this collection, we welcome suggestions for purchases! If you are interested in helping us add to this collection, follow the directions to donate to the Library Fund above, and indicate “PPPW” in the comments line, along with the book information.
Thank you for considering donating items to the Theology Library. Because of space limitations and staff time required for processing, the Library is only able to accept donations during the months of May and June. During May and June, donations are accepted at the Library during business hours, Monday-Friday, 9 am–4 pm.
We may not always be able to add your donated item(s) to our collection. The decision to add a book or other item to the collection is usually based on whether we already have a copy and/or whether it fits within the parameters of our collection policy. However, your donation will still benefit the Theology Library. Items donated that are not added may be offered to another theological library, given to a student, sold, or (very rarely) disposed of. Proceeds from items sold will go directly into the Library’s funds for acquisitions. While it is not required, if you can provide a list of your donated items with your donation, this will greatly assist the Library staff in processing your donation.
The Library does not accept the following items as donations:
- family Bibles
- church school curricular materials
- individual issues of journals
- books with water or mold damage
- books that have handwriting in them
- obsolete formats (for example, VHS tapes, cassettes, CD-Roms, etc.)
- children’s literature
Federal tax laws prevent the Library from assigning a dollar value to donated materials. However, the Library will send you an acknowledgement letter documenting your donation should you wish to claim it as a charitable contribution for tax purposes. Should you wish to assign a value for your gift, and you believe it exceeds $500, you must file Form 8283 with the IRS to claim the donation on your income tax. If you feel the value of the gift exceeds $5,000, you must have a reputable used or rare book dealer certify to this assessment prior to the donation. The Library can provide you with the name and contact information for a book dealer who may be able to give you an assessment of the value of books you are considering for donation.
All questions concerning donations of archival materials to the Theology Library should be addressed to the Archivist & Preservation Librarian. Donations of books and all other items should be addressed to the Head Librarian, Amy Limpitlaw (617-353-1321, ael23@bu.edu.)
We thank you in advance for considering donating books or other items to the Theology Library. Regardless of whether the items donated become part of our collection, your act of generosity is appreciated.
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