Donate

The Department of Distinctive Collections welcomes offers of materials that build upon our collections. Explore our collections for more information.

Follow the directions below to submit a donation offer to the MIT Libraries Distinctive Collections.

The Donation process

The process of acquiring new materials involves review by the Distinctive Collections collection development team. Our team will determine if the offered materials are an appropriate fit with our collections and ensure we have the resources to properly preserve, describe, store, and make the materials accessible.

If you have a deadline related to your potential donation (an upcoming move, retirement, or event), please contact us as soon as possible to allow time for us to make our evaluation.
MIT Offices and DLCs: Institute records managed by MIT employees follow a separate process. See instructions to transfer records to the Institute Archives.

Step 1: Tell us about your donation

Fill out our donation offer form. Include as much information as you can.

Our evaluation process may take several weeks or even months depending on the scope of the materials.
Archivists on staff may set up phone/zoom meetings to discuss the donation, or schedule a site visit to review and appraise the materials in person.
To allow the best use of our resources we use a set of core principles to guide our appraisal and acquisitions decisions.
Please do not reorganize materials before our staff has an opportunity to review them. Original order of a collection can often make it easier to provide access to the materials and can provide important context for researchers.

Step 2: Sign a Deed of Gift and prepare your donation for transfer

If we determine that your donation is appropriate for our permanent collections we will work with you on a timeline for transferring your materials to the MIT Libraries.

All donations are made to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The MIT Libraries, through the Department of Distinctive Collections, administers the collections on behalf of the Institute.
Distinctive Collections staff will guide donors through the process of completing the necessary forms to formalize the donation of materials to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. As part of this process, if it applies, we will discuss any restriction on access to the materials and your preferences regarding the transfer of intellectual property.
We do not provide monetary appraisal of materials.
We will arrange for transportation and transfer of materials that are on campus.
We will not cover the cost of transportation and delivery of materials located off campus.

Please follow the appropriate packing and listing instructions to ensure that your donation can be successfully transferred to our accessioning and processing staff.

Step 3: After your donation is received

You will receive a letter or email acknowledging your gift that includes the accession number. You can use this number in the future to refer back to your donation.
The materials will be described in a publicly available finding aid (guide to an archival collection) or via an individual record in the MIT Libraries online catalog.
Staff will work to process (arrange and describe) the materials. The time frame for when materials will be accessible will vary depending on factors such as condition and arrangement of the materials upon arrival, conservation concerns, presence of audiovisual or digital materials.
During processing of archival collections, items out of scope, duplicates, and most legacy digital media (after the files are transferred) will be removed from the collection. Unless you have requested that items be returned to you, these materials will be disposed of at our discretion.

We also welcome donations of financial resources that will enable us to continue to grow our collections, as well as our innovative programming, projects, and outreach efforts.