Gifts and donations form an integral part of an academic library's existence, whether monetary or physical items. While monetary gifts are greatly valued, gift-in-kind donations of physical items can also contribute rare or unique items to collections. However, gift-in-kind donations also bring many challenges, as processing and evaluating physical materials can be time-consuming and labour-intensive; moreover, these materials may occupy significant amounts of space and ultimately may or may not add value to the library collection. Providing clear, publicly available gift and donation information can mitigate some of these challenges and help to set expectations for donors by giving a clear overview of the evaluation process and letting them know which types of material are of interest. The author reviewed donation-related webpages of twenty-one Canadian academic libraries to determine commonalities regarding library donation webpages. This analysis can provide practical assistance to librarians who are creating or revising gift-in-kind policies and procedures in Canadian academic libraries.

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The work under consideration is a clear and concise exposition of the lifeand thought of Muhammad al-Baqir, the great-grandson of ProphetMuhammad and one of the most influential Shi`i Imams, recognized by boththe Isma`ili and Ithna`ashari Shi`ahs. In this revised version of her doctoraldissertation, the author draws on a wide-range of primary sources and aselection of secondary materials in order to provide the reader with a portraitof a central figure in Shi`i Islam, one who can also tell us a great deal aboutthe formative stage of Islamic thought. For this reason, Early Shi`i Thoughtshould be of interest not only to students of Shi`ism, but also to all those concernedwith the often complex development of Islamic civilization during itsearly period.The first chapter, which serves as the introduction, constitutes a briefsummary of the lives of the first Shi`i Imams and the succession to theProphet. Here, the author provides us with a list of the primary sources thatshe will be using throughout her study. The second chapter, dealing with theimamate before the time of Muhammad al-Baqir, is also an historicaloverview of the lives of the early Imams and their struggles against both theUmayyads as well as some of their own partisans. Chapter 3 is devoted toal-Baqir’s succession to the imamate and to the divisions among the Shi`ahat that time. Al-Baqir’s quietism is contrasted with the political activism ofhis half-brother Zayd ibn `Ali and the emerging Zaydi Shi`ah, who werewilling to revolt against their rulers ...