Donor Information

NOTE: a printable text file can be downloaded here

In deciding to make a gift to the AHAP, potential donors are welcome to contact the director, David B. Baker.Gifts can be in the form of monetary contributions and/or gifts of materials. The appropriateness of the gift can be discussed and the steps involved can be reviewed and explained. The following are frequently asked questions about manuscript gifts that can help orient donors to the AHAP's acquisition process.

1. What is the Deed of Gift? It is a working document meant to insure the integrity and protection of your materials. Review the deed of gift form and discuss any particulars with your family and with the archives director. There are only a few things that need clarification. First, is the issue of restriction. That is, should certain materials be restricted? and if so, for how long? Patient records including test protocols or case notes must be restricted, say 50 years, and when opened never copied and patient names never used. We can handle all of this when we review the material. You can make restrictions as you see fit but it is part of our job and something we are quite comfortable doing.

2. How is the issue of copyright handled? Essentially, all your material is copyrighted and you own the copyright. In making the deed of gift you provide that right to us. This is often a point of confusion. We do not expect to profit monetarily from owning the copyright. It insures that no one can use, quote, copy, cite, etc. from your papers without our consent. We serve as the watchdog to be certain that your historical legacy is used properly and not abused. If you maintain copyright, each time someone uses your collection, they must track you down and secure your permission. Within reasonable limits, we can keep you appraised of who is using your papers, but with over 700 psychologists on file, it consumes a lot of unnecessary time and energy to do such tracking. Again, it is a matter of trust; do you trust us with your papers and their proper use? If there were to be any monetary gain in a project, we would always consult you or your representative. For example, a few posthumous publications have been made from unpublished papers in a manuscript collection. In all cases, we have cooperated with family members in allowing them to decide on proceeds.

3. What constitutes papers? Everything and anything. A collection can hold any or all of the following: correspondence, manuscripts, reprints (we only keep 2 copies), lecture notes, patient records, testing materials, photographs, movies, diplomas, awards and books. Book collections and libraries are handled in a multi-stage process. First, you should have an appraisal of your library. This appraisal serves as a tax deduction as a charitable gift. When books arrive at the archives they are sorted. Rare and antiquarian volumes are kept in locked shelves in the reading room and do not circulate. A bookplate with the donor’s name is attached and they are catalogued for entry into the card catalogue system. The remainder are sent to the main university library and catalogued. Books not represented in the university holdings are cataloged, a gift plate affixed and the books placed on the shelves. Books that appear in multiple copies in the library system are returned to us and we forward them on to an antiquarian dealer who gives us credit toward the purchase of rare books for our permanent collection.

4. How does material arrive? You decide what you want to send and when you want to send it. While we can store a collection, we typically do not process it until the death of the donor. Some people prefer to send us a box here and a box there. Some people wait until their death and the estate ships everything at once. In either case, we ask that you do not presort your papers. You can of course organize them in some way if you choose. For most of us our papers already are in some order, and it is best if you simply box them and send them. We operate from a small budget and try to spend as much of our funds as we can on processing collections. Because of this we ask the donor to cover the cost of shipping.

5. What is processing of a collection? When someone’s papers arrive, the archives director does an initial sort of the collection (also known as appraisal). Decisions are made on what to keep, what to restrict, and how best to categorize the material. Material that is not usually kept includes multiple copies of reprints, syllabi, raw data, and computer printouts of data analysis. The material is then reboxed to await the preparation of the finding aids. The finding aid is an inventory, a record of everything that is in the collection. Inventory clerks who are usually work-study students who have archival training do this work. They go through each item in the collection and record it. This includes every piece of correspondence, every manuscript, each note, etc. We do a thorough inventory and in some cases it takes years to prepare. This is where we pay a dividend to you, in that we expend a great deal of time and money seeing that your work is properly preserved, indexed, and made available to researchers.

6. What other types of gifts can be made? The AHAP is a branch of the University Libraries and as such receives funding through the library budget. Our funds are very limited with nearly one-half of our operating expenses covered through donations. We encourage patrons and donors to consider making charitable gifts to the archives. There are a variety of means to do this. The annual Friends of the Archives campaign provides a method of charitable giving on a yearly basis. Endowments and other forms of estate planning are especially welcomed and a representative of the University development office is always available to meet with interested donors.