My gratitude to all librarians for your swift replies and useful
suggestions! 

 

The main point brought out was that librarians are not qualified to appraise
old books, and in the eyes of the IRS should not be doing the appraising.
This is up to the doctor or accountant.  But everyone agreed that a listing
of the books in a Thank-You note was standard procedure.  

 

Several helpful sites were listed:

www.abebooks.com (the site most mentioned)

http://www.thesciencebookstore.com/ <http://www.thesciencebookstore.com/> .

www.addall.com/Used/

http://www.alibris.com <http://www.alibris.com/>  (second most mentioned
site)

 

Someone also suggested 25% of the original purchase price - and it is up to
the doctor to list them.

 

The IRS also has a PDF for determining the value of donated property:

http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p561.pdf
<http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/p561.pdf>  pg 5 is specifically on books.

 

Finally, as much as the libraries try to find homes for the old books
through book sales, many textbooks published before 1990 end up in the dust
heap.

  

Andrea Harrow, MLS

Medical Library Manager

Good Samaritan Hospital

637 S. Lucas Ave.

Los Angeles, CA 90017-2395

Librarian is available 9 to 5, Tuesdays and Thursdays

tel: 213-977-2047

fax: 213-977-4185

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