Donated Materials

MATERIAL DONATION GUIDELINES

PLEASE REVIEW THIS DOCUMENT BEFORE DONATING

The Park County Fairplay Branch welcomes gifts of books and other materials during operating hours. Please do not leave items outside the library or garage.

The Fairplay Library accepts new or gently used:

  • Hardcover and Paperback books
  • Perfect condition media (DVDs and Audiobooks)
  • Games and Puzzles

The library cannot accept the following materials:

  • Damaged books or books in poor condition
    • Water, mold or mildew damage
    • Missing or torn pages and covers (this includes missing dust jackets)
    • Stains
    • Highlighting or handwriting (this does not include author-signed books)
  • Textbooks
  • Encyclopedias
  • Out of date materials (older nonfiction)
  • Magazines (Including Reader’s Digest and National Geographic)
  • VHS or cassette tapes

Your Donations are Tax Deductible

If requested, library staff will provide you with a letter of receipt specifying the number of items donated with the understanding that the library does not assign monetary value to the donated items. It will be up to you to assign a value for tax purposes. Letters of receipt may be obtained at the circulation desk or library office at any location.

What does the Fairplay Library do with donations?

All donations are greatly appreciated and have many uses at the libraries:

  • The library sells donated items in Friends of the Library garage and on Friends of the Library bookshelves located in the library. The money raised by these sales goes to fund programming and purchase library materials.
  • Donated materials may also be added to the library collection or used to replace a book that has been well loved.
  • Donated children’s books and media can be used as prizes for programming.
  • Donated materials that the library cannot sell are distributed to other organizations.

What can I do with materials the library cannot accept?

Recycle! Reuse!

  • For magazines, you don’t need to remove anything from inside the magazine, such as staples, the cardstock ads or even perfume samples. You can also leave the cover and binding.
  • If the magazine came in a plastic bag, you’ll want to remove and recycle this separately.
  • For paperback books, you can recycle the book whole, including the binding. For hardcover books, you’ll need to remove the cover because it has non-paper components.
  • If either your books or magazines have gotten wet or the paper has turned tan or brown, they should be thrown away with your household trash, as there is no recycling market for this material.

The library reserves the right to refuse any item offered for donation for any reason.