[Genealib] Donated Genealogy Research

[M. Diane Rogers]

Appreciate your post, James, and Debra's question.  Very interested in 
knowing more about what other libraries do.

No written policy but our genealogical library does accept 'stuff' from 
members' estates and downsizing (once in a while from non-members), but then 
we must find an experienced member to go through the files/bags/boxes and 
weed out the material that's not useful or organized well enough. This 
usually is a long process - even for books - yesterday we received, I think, 
17 boxes of books and research binders.

We too are very limited with space, but don't want to discourage these 
donations. We have seen some very sad cases where family members have thrown 
out years of members' research.

I like the idea of asking people to focus on what's 'original' -- of course, 
that seems to be the hard part, convincing people to think ahead. Many of us 
talk about it, but do we do it? (Glad there is no video cam here or you 
would see a couple of unorganized piles around my own desk!)

Our society is sponsoring talks right now on 'writing your own history' - 
hoping that more of our members will write and print out their research & 
then donate their publications, of course.

M. Diane Rogers
British Columbia Genealogical Society, Canada: www.bcgs.ca