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Gifts and Donations

The Duke Medical Center Library gladly accepts donations that will help strengthen our collections, services, and general resources, including:

  • Monetary gifts to purchase materials and support services and special projects
  • Books and journals
  • Audiovisual and multimedia programs
  • Artifacts (stamps, book plates, instruments) relating to medicine or Duke University
  • Manuscripts and papers of key figures in health care and medicine at Duke University

If you are not sure whether your gift fits one of the categories above, we will be glad to discuss it with you to determine if it is within our scope of Library or Archives collections.

Whenever items are donated to our Library, our team of skilled professionals reviews the items to determine whether the materials should be added to our collections. They consider:

  • Whether we already own the materials
  • If duplicate copies are needed
  • Overall conditions of the donated materials
  • If the Library and Archives can adequately house and preserve the materials
  • Whether the items fit the scope of our biomedical and health care collection

Those items that are out of scope are frequently offered to other libraries or to our Duke community of students, faculty and medical professionals.

The professional staff members also decide the best location of your gift within the Library or Archives facilities:

Policies:

We will provide a general letter of acknowledgement for tax purposes. Donor names are also ascribed on bookplates in accepted materials.

Per IRS policies, we are unable to provide appraisal services to obtain monetary value of donations. However, we are happy to refer donors to professional appraisers in the area, upon request.

We usually do not provide a detailed list of items that are donated. However, we will be glad to discuss with you some ways to easily document the donation.

We can accept donations on site, but if you are donating several boxes of materials, please call ahead so that we can give you directions to our loading dock and provide book trucks for your materials. In addition, we are often able to pick up materials from donors with prior notice.

How to Contact Us:

  • General Gift Information
  • Karen Grigg
  • Associate Director, Collection Development Services
  • (919) 660-1122
  • grigg012@mc.duke.edu
  • Monetary Donations
  • Pat Thibodeau
  • Associate Dean for Library Services & Archives
  • (919) 660-1150
  • thibo001@mc.duke.edu
  • Journal Donations
  • Emma Cryer
  • Electronic Resources and Serials Manager
  • (919) 660-1140
  • emma.cryer@duke.edu
  • Gifts of Duke-related Materials
  • Russell Koonts
  • Director and Archivist Medical Center Archives
  • (919) 383-2653
  • koont004@mc.duke.edu
  • Historical Donations/Duke Authors
  • Karen Grigg
  • Associate Director, Collection Development Services
  • (919) 660-1122
  • grigg012@mc.duke.edu
  • General Donations for Medical Center Library
  • https://www.gifts.duke.edu
  • Scroll down to the section "Other Duke Designations" and put in Medical Center Library for the area you would like to support