Disposal of Surplus Property Policy

In accordance with Public Act 87-1277 when the Board has determined to sell or otherwise dispose of real or personal property that it deems no longer necessary or useful for library purposes, the property may be sold or disposed of as follows:

1. Personal property of any value may be donated or sold to any other tax-supported library or to any Library System.
2. Books and non-print items withdrawn from the library’s collections on an ongoing basis and which have unit values of less than $1,000 may be given to the Friends of the Library or to some other such philanthropic, educational, cultural, governmental, or other not-for-profit organization.
3. Decommissioned computers which have unit values of less than $1,000 and are incapable of running current software and/or are incompatible with the library’s computer network may be disposed of using qualified computer recycling services or donated to philanthropic, educational, cultural, governmental, or other not-for-profit organizations.
4. All other items of personal property having a unit value of $1,000 or less may be discarded, turned in for credit toward the purchase of new personal property, or made available for sale.
5. Personal property having a unit value of more than $1,000 but less than $2,500 may be displayed at the library, and a public notice of its availability and the date and the terms of the proposed sale shall be posted.
6. Personal property having a unit value of over $2,500 may be sold after publishing notice of the availability and location of the real or personal property and the date and terms of the proposed sale, giving the notice once each week for 2 successive weeks. The notice shall be published in one or more newspapers published within the district or, if there is no such newspaper, then at least once in a newspaper of general circulation in the district and published in the county that contains all or the larger portion of the district.
   
   On the day of the sale, the Library Director shall proceed with the sale and may sell the property for a price determined by the Board or to the highest bidder. Where the Board deems the bids inadequate, it may reject the bids and re-advertise the sale.
7. Where the library receives two offers to purchase the personal property advertised for sale, it may grant a preference to the offer which provides a credit against the purchase price of a replacement product.
8. The disposal of discarded property will be handled in an environmentally and economically sound manner.

Policy last revised 7/20/23

Printable version of this policy.