1. The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
www.emeraldinsight.com/0888-045X.htm
BL
24,2 Selecting foreign language books
donated by Asia Foundation and
Asian-US Bridge Foundation
96
Juan Wang
Beijing Normal University, Zhuhai Campus, Zhuhai, Guangdong, China
Received November 2010
Accepted June 2011
Abstract
Purpose – Many Chinese libraries have limited budget to buy foreign language books. The purpose
of this paper is to introduce an available and cheaper suggestion for the budgets of small libraries’
foreign language books acquisition.
Design/methodology/approach – This paper discusses the benefits of selecting donated books
and takes some small libraries in China as examples to conduct the case study.
Findings – Advantages of selecting donated books include: quick arrival, lower cost, and a variety of
title selections. Disadvantages are: no book list, long distance, unsatisfied selection.
Practical implications – Donated books in one’s purchasing program can substantially expand the
range and amount of materials that libraries are able to collect.
Originality/value – This paper will be useful to any library facing budget cuts as well as looking for
ways to continually provide a wide variety of library materials.
Keywords Libraries, Donated books, China, Asia Foundation, Asian-US Bridge Foundation
Paper type Case study
Due to the increasingly higher cost of foreign books, the budget of foreign books
acquisition in most libraries has been tighter and tighter. It is high time to figure out
the cheaper way of enhancing one’s purchasing power: getting foreign language books
from which donated by Asia Foundation and Asian-US Bridge Foundation.
Introduction of Asia Foundation and Asian-US Bridge Foundation
The Asia Foundation is a non-profit, non-governmental organization committed to the
development of a peaceful, prosperous, just, and open Asia-Pacific region. In 2009, the
Foundation provided more than $86 million in program support and distributed nearly
one million books and journals valued at over $43 million (http://asiafoundation.org).
The Asian-US Bridge Foundation is an international nonprofit organization which
supports education and research in developing countries in Asia. The Foundation has
sent more than 2 million books and journals to China and 500,000 to Southeast Asia. In
China, the Ministry of Education coordinates distributions through three centers to
more than 450 schools. Librarians and faculty from the schools visit the centers to
select materials (www.bridge.org).
The Bottom Line: Managing Library
Finances
Vol. 24 No. 2, 2011
pp. 96-99 The reasons to make use of donated books
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0888-045X
There are several reasons to put donated books into the library’s acquisition plan,
DOI 10.1108/08880451111169115 especially for our library, which range from cost, availability, to course requirements.

2. Limited budget Selecting foreign
Getting donated books can stretch one’s budget for acquisition of foreign books. First, language books
our college is a small private college in China. The budget of library is very limited and
thus a tiny portion of budget remained for acquisition of foreign books by most
expenditure of money on Chinese books and databases. According to the statistics, the
budget of public university’s library is always about 10 million. While our library’
budget is 4 million, and that of foreign language books merely accounts for eight 97
percent – only 0.3 million. It is really a tight budget for any library.
Arriving library quickly
The speed of traditional purchasing approach is very slow. Most Chinese libraries
purchase foreign language books by import and export corporation, e.g. GNPIEC,
CEPIEC. For example, our library bids for acquisition of foreign language books at
every beginning of the school year. After the processes of bidding off, getting book list
and books selection, the selected books are unable to the reach of the library until six
months later. As for the donated books, you can select them on the spot. One or two
weeks the selected books may come into circulation.
There is the cheapest way to fill in the foreign language collection gaps
Generally speaking, the price of original foreign language copy is more than 100RMB
even in online shop, which costs as twice as Chinese copy’s. The average price of
Chinese copy is ranges from 30RMB to 50RMB depending on the subjects with the
increasingly higher price. But the books donated by Asia Foundation and Asian-US
Bridge Foundation are free and what you just need to do is pay for the delivering. In
this case, our library only needs to pay for the freight – 12RMB. Those libraries near
the center spend even less. So, this is the cheapest way.
Contents take priority over condition
There are different kinds of donated books, such as college, graduate and professional
level books, journals and other forms of information in all fields (but especially in
science, engineering, art, and literature), both used and new. Contents take priority over
conditions. Used books are as desirable as new ones if the information of contents is
current and their condition is presentable.
Some books is unavailable
While tens of thousands of books are published in China each year, there will always
be some subjects that are not written about very often. The subject may be obscure, out
of fashion, or simply never well covered. Some subjects of donated books may be one’s
best bet. For example, the foreign language classic literature (1996 version) is not
available for Faculty of Foreign Language in our college, but they find it among
donated books.
Disadvantages
There are so many benefits of using donated books, although there are still some
disadvantages.

3. BL No book list
24,2 Asia Foundation and Asian-US Bridge Foundation are both international nonprofit
organizations which supports education and research in developing countries in Asia.
They just delivered the donated books to some centers in China. These centers are
always university’s libraries which have not enough staff to make book lists. This is
inconvenient for every library which wants to select the donated books.
98
Centers of donated books are distance
In China, almost all of the donated books are distributed through three centers which
are libraries of Ocean University of China, Dalian Technology University and Tongji
University. Our library is located in Zhuhai city Guangdong province. The nearest
center – library of Tongji University is almost 2,000 km away from Zhuhai. Therefore,
our librarians and faculty have to visit the centers to select materials just once each
semester.
Unsatisfied book selection
Some of book selection is not satisfied. First reason may be time limited. Our library
often needs to select 500 or 600 kinds of books in two or three days. Secondly, some
staff is not good at English, especially in the specialized field. Thirdly, attitude may be
according to unsatisfied book selection.
How to get the donated books
Some libraries have direct contact with foreign libraries. As a result, they can obtain
the donated books easily. Most of them have no such solutions, so the Chinese center of
Asia Foundation and Asian-US Bridge Foundation must be an easier and available
choice. And the center is open to any library in China. When one want to get the
donated books, just have to find a phone number of nearest center from internet, or
other libraries. Then you can call the center for an appointment of selecting donated
books. Next is easy, just by packing your luggage and going to the center by a train or
by airplane. You can select anything you want in the book stacks. In addition to, you
can login in the official websites of Foundations which are http://asiafoundation.org/
and http://www.bridge.org (www.google.com.hk) (Ming, 2010).
Conclusion
International book donation in China has been for 20 years which has brought
important contributions for the development of higher education in China. According
to statistics, after 1995 the average amount received from Asian-US Bridge Foundation
is above 120,000 copies, and the biggest amount is 180,000 copies, the center of Ocean
University of China (www.google.com.hk). More and more libraries benefit from the
book donation, especially for small or private libraries such as our library. It shows
that whole foreign language collection of some libraries is totally composed of donated
books, such as Tianjin Polytechnic University, Wuhan University of Technology and
Weifang Medical College (Ming, 2010). In a word, the practice of selecting donated
books produces so many benefits, which really can stretch one’s budget of foreign
language books by paying a little freight. Just do it.

4. Reference Selecting foreign
Ming, Z. (2010), “Management of books donated by Asia Foundation and Asian-US Bridge language books
Foundation”, Library Construction, No. 3, pp. 22-4.
Further reading
Staley, L. and Palo, E. (2010), “Extend one’s budget: buy used books”, The Bottom Line:
Managing Library Finances, Vol. 23 No. 3, pp. 116-21. 99
Corresponding author
Juan Wang can be contacted at: winnieee@126.com
To purchase reprints of this article please e-mail: reprints@emeraldinsight.com
Or visit our web site for further details: www.emeraldinsight.com/reprints