Donations

Finacial Donations

The library does accept monetary donations. You may specify how you would like our collection to use the funds. Some options include:

Books
Digitizing
Special programs
Archival supplies
Equipment
Furniture
Other
No restrictions

Checks or money orders should be made payable to the Wayne County Public Library and sent to:

Wayne County Public Library
Genealogy and Local History
304 N. Market St.
Wooster, OH 44691

Material Donation

The WCPL Genealogy and Local History Collection welcomes donations meeting the collection’s criteria for curation. If considering donating your materials to the collection, please ensure it meets the following criteria.

Relevance to the collection

We collect materials related to Wayne and the surrounding counties (Holmes, Medina, Ashland, and Stark primarily). At the very least, materials to be donated should have some relevance to Ohio to be considered.

Non-duplication of materials

We are only able to accept and house a certain number of the same item within the collection. We will keep no more than four copies of an item. Two will be housed in the library proper, and two will be housed in the archive.

Condition of the materials

Materials should be new or gently used. Items with water damage, mold, mildew, insect damage, and strong odors will not be accepted. Such items can damage the rest of the collection.

Authenticity and completeness of the material

Materials should be authentic to the person receiving credit for them, and they should not be plagiarized. Materials will ideally adhere to the Genealogical Proof Standard as set forth by the Board of Certified Genealogists.

Researchers should conduct a reasonably exhaustive search.
Complete and accurate citations should be included.
Collected information should be analyzed and correlated to assess quality of evidence.
Any conflicts should be resolved.
Conclusions should be soundly reasoned and coherently written.

Ease of use for patrons

To best serve our patrons, materials should ideally be indexed. In the case of family histories, an every-name index would be best. At the very least, the material should contain a finding-aide, such as a table of contents.

Ability to properly store and display the materials

Materials to be donated should be bound. This can be in a book format, or contained within a three-ring binder, report covers, or something of a similar variety. We are not able to accept three dimensional items. Such items might be of interest to a local historical society depending on their relevance.

Amount of time required to arrange the material for patron use

Materials to be donated should be in an organized format. Staff should not have to spend much if any time organizing the materials. We would also prefer the materials not be placed within protective sleeves. We often send items in binders to be bound into a book format, and having those materials in the protective sleeves makes this process take longer than it should.

Format of the materials must be relevant to the times

Materials donated need to be able to be accessible for our patrons. For this reason, we will not accept materials in obsolete formats, such as VHS tape, 8mm film, floppy disks, etc.

Photographs

Photographs should be labeled with names and dates if at all possible. If not, a general idea of what family the photographs represent would be ideal. We reserve the right to remove the photos from frames and albums.

How to Donate Material

If you are seeking to donate your items, we would strongly recommend contacting us prior to doing so. We can be reached by email at genealogy@wcpl.info, or by phone (330) 262-0916 ext 4670.

Donations can be made in person within library hours, or they may be mailed to us at the donor’s expense. If mailing, our address is: