Perhaps I misunderstood the question, but I thought it wasn't about whether there are circumstances when some old textbooks might be worth keeping, but whether old textbooks can ever be worth preserving in a university archives. Documents placed in archives should have archival value. The fact that something may have information worth preserving isn't enough to justify preserving it in an archives. To be preserved in an archives, it should be archival. Furthermore, simply being archival isn't enough; whatever archival values an item may have should be specific to your archives, its mission, and its collection development policy. And, those archival values should be significant enough to justify the time and expense of processing, preservation, and storage. So, under what circumstances can a bunch of old textbooks have sufficient archival value to justify permanently preserving them in a university archives? Simply having been used in a class at your school isn't enough. Having annotations consisting of mostly underlining and an occasional margin note isn't enough. Having been authored by a faculty member may not be enough, depending on your collection policy. Were they published by your university? Were they significantly annotated by a university administrator with annotations that shed light on the university's development? If not, and if your only reason for considering them is the information on their printed pages, then give them to your university library. Since most university libraries have blanket policies against accepting donations of old textbooks, they will then most likely be thrown away. Lee ---- Leon C. Miller, Manuscripts Librarian Special Collections, Jones Hall Tulane University Libraries New Orleans, Louisiana 70118 ph: 504-865-5685, fx: 504-865-5761, [log in to unmask] http://specialcollections.tulane.edu -----Original Message----- From: Archives & Archivists [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Eric v.d. Luft, Ph.D., M.L.S., Curator of Historical Collections Sent: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 11:12 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: Keeping Textbooks? Steve, ABSOLUTELY keep them! Textbooks are the best primary resource for the state of progress in any given field at any given time. A posting from the Archives & Archivists LISTSERV List sponsored by the Society of American Archivists, www.archivists.org. For the terms of participation, please refer to http://www.archivists.org/listservs/arch_listserv_terms.asp. To subscribe or unsubscribe, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] In body of message: SUB ARCHIVES firstname lastname *or*: UNSUB ARCHIVES To post a message, send e-mail to [log in to unmask] Or to do *anything* (and enjoy doing it!), use the web interface at http://listserv.muohio.edu/archives/archives.html Problems? Send e-mail to Robert F Schmidt <[log in to unmask]>