I have about a 13 year run (1987-2000) of JASIS (Journal of the
American Society of Information Science) issues that I'd like to get
rid of.  I'm looking
for informed advice on whether selling or donating to a library (and
taking tax deduction) is the most lucrative and the least hassle.  (Or
if value of the issues is likely to be so low that neither is likely
to be worth the hassle.)

If advice is to sell, a responsive answer should indicate through what
medium to sell (eBay, classified ad in particular publication, contact
a particular company).  If advice is to donate (or discard), a
responsive answer should indicate how to establish value, and if to
donate, how to find a library that will accept donation and provide
paperwork.

I will consider advice to be "informed" if the respondent has direct
experience with selling/donating back issues of journals, or provides
a pointer to an informed web page/article on this topic.

Thanks, Dave

Hi Dave,

I'm impressed that you kept JASIS for 13 years!  As a fellow member of
ASIST, I know how heavy those issues can be.

You have several options for selling or donating this run:  

As a librarian, I am always in favor of having people donate journals
to libraries.  This is really nice because it can save a library a
significant amount of money, and get you a nice tax writeoff.  Not
knowing where you are, it's somewhat hard to say to whom you should
donate the run.  However, you might consider calling the collection
management department (or acquisitions, if there is no collections
personnel) at academic libraries in your area to see if they would be
interested in the run.  When you speak with the person in charge of
social science collecting (or computer science), ask them a: whether
they want the journal, and b: what kind of documentation you will get.
 Most libraries will send you a letter of thanks that acts as your
receipt.

Caution: They may say no to the gift.  This is particularly true if
you were to offer JASIS to a place like, say, UNC-Chapel Hill or
Rutgers, both of which have schools of information science &
librarianship (and thus most likely already have a complete run of
JASIS).  According to WorldCat, there are more than 850 libraries with
subscriptions to JASIS, which is quite a lot!

Another way to find a library or individual who might be interested in
this run is to send a message to the ASIS listserv (asis-l@asis.org)
asking if anyone wants the issues.  It is also possible that the SIG
III (International Information Issues) of ASIST would know of non-US
libraries that could use the back issues.  Their website is
http://www.slis.kent.edu/~yinzhang/sigiii/.  You are unlikely to be
paid for the issues, but you might get your shipping reimbursed.

Establishing donation value can be difficult for journals.  For books
it is generally considered either 1/2 the original cost of the book
(this is what used bookstores charge) or $4 for hardbacks and $1 for
paperbacks (this is what nonprofits charge).  Journals are more
tricky.  However, Absolute Backorder Service is asking for $100 per
issue of JASIST (2001-2002), which would bring the value of your
collection to approximately $15,600, if you were able to sell them
individually by issue.  I'd be more comfortable putting the tag at
$100 per volume, in your case (still a hefty $1300 value).

Unfortunately, you won't get this high price if you sell them, and
it's hard to say what the going rate would be.  In my experience,
you'd be lucky if you got $100 for the complete run.  There are some
companies that purchase back issues and runs of journals whom you can
contact for a price quote.

Alfred Jaeger, Inc.
http://www.ajaeger.com/pages/webuyjournals.html
This page discusses the policies for purchasing duplicates/runs of
journals.  I have used this service in the past for selling duplicate
journals.  In general, you send them information about what you have
and they send you a quote.  They will mail you a check (plus shipping)
once they have received the journals.

Back Issue Finder
http://www.backissuefinder.com/sellerfaqs.htm
This service acts kind of like eBay, where you can post your run of
journals and wait for someone to come looking for it.  This appears to
work best for very popular titles, which I am sorry to say that I
don't think JASIS is.

United States Book Exchange
http://www.usbe.com/about.html#donations
This company collects journals and books as donations (they pay your
shipping if they decide they want the journal), then they either
resell the title to US libraries or send them to developing countries'
libraries for free.  I have used them as well, but mostly as a last
resort.  You will get joy in your heart from donating the journals,
but no tax writeoff (unlike if you just donate straight to a library)
and no actual money.

Research Periodicals and Book Service, Inc.
http://www.rpbs.com
I unfortunately can't get this link to work today, but I have used
this service in the past as well.  It is similar to Alfred Jaeger, as
I remember.

As is mentioned above, I know most of this information from years of
experience in libraries.  However, the MIT Libraries Collection
Services (http://macfadden.mit.edu:9500/colserv/monoacq/pubs.html) is
where I found the URLs for each of the back issues vendors.

I hope one of the above options appeals to you -

librariankt