fishbulb

Without trying to comment on the specifics of this case, I should point out that every gift a library accepts costs it money. There is a significant cost associated with cataloguing the book (anywhere from about 20 minutes of a technician's time if the cataloguing record is derived from a reputable source like the Library of Congress, to an hour or more of a professional librarian's time if high-quality original cataloguing is done--though this is rare for smaller public libraries to do), adding barcoding, stamping, tattletape, etc., and entering it into the circulation system. There is also a maintenance cost associated with it. The more books a library has, the more shelf space, offsite storage, staff, etc. it needs. That's why libraries regularly weed their collections and get rid of material in order to make room for new items. The processing cost can easily be more than the cost of the purchase itself, which is why your public library may charge you $50 to replace the $10 book you borrowed and never returned. Strange as it sounds, libraries can't always afford to accept gifts.

A library should have a policy with regards to accepting donations for precisely this reason. Some libraries may not accept donations at all because they don't want to be seen as exercising censorship by accepting some and rejecting others.

Admiral, you might want to ask if your library has a written policy for accepting and rejecting gifts and, if they don't, ask why not.

mjennyt

Nothing in San Antonio. They also have some Dawkins.

Ab_Normal

Nothing in the Spokane County Library system.

Writer@Large

The CMU university library has Denying Evolution and another Pigliucci book, Phenotypic Plasticity. The local Mt. Pleasant library has no Pigliucci books.

--W@L

Nostalgic Pushhead

The RIT school library has Denying Evolution.

wildernesse

Although the PINES system has no books by him, UGA's library has 3 of his books:

Pigliucci, Massimo Denying evolution : creationism, scientism, and the nature of science

Pigliucci, Massimo Phenotypic evolution : a reaction norm perspective

Pigliucci, Massimo Phenotypic plasticity : beyond nature and nurture

--tibac

Defiant Heretic

Nothing by Pigliucci at my local library, but they do have George C. Smith's "Why Atheism" and a few others.

Per

Danish libraries (combined) have 3 books by him:

Phenotypic plasticity : beyond nature and nurture
Massimo Pigliucci

Phenotypic evolution : a reaction norm perspective
Carl D. Schlichting, Massimo Pigliucci

Consensus on hyperthermia for the 1990s : clinical practice in cancer treatment
edited by Haim I. Bicher, John R. McLaren and Giuseppe M. Pigliucci

Nickle

U North Texas has Denying Evolution, no others by Pigliucci.

The Admiral

All

Thank you.

The Admiral