Elisabeth C. Miller Library — Seattle Botanic Gardens
The Elisabeth C. Miller Library supports the mission of Seattle Botanic Gardens in serving the gardening public and horticultural professionals by collecting books, journals, and other materials for research and teaching at the Center for Urban Horticulture, Seattle Japanese Garden, and the Washington Park Arboretum.
The Pacific Northwest is known worldwide as an exemplary climatic region for ornamental horticulture. As the largest horticultural library in the region, the Miller Library maintains a significant and substantial archive of Pacific Northwest horticulture as an asset to the regional horticultural community and the University of Washington.
The Miller Library Archive (hereafter “the Archive”) collects, preserves, organizes, describes and makes publicly available records deemed to hold historic horticultural value. Records of historic horticultural value document decisions, policies, procedures, events, the physical places and people associated with our organization, as defined in the scope below. The Archive will also include historic documents of Northwest people, organizations and public gardens with horticultural significance.
The Miller Library Archive seeks to supplement, not replace, the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections (“Libraries”) and in some cases may duplicate materials held by the Libraries. Administrative, legal and financial records should be sent to the Libraries, if appropriate as defined by the University Archivist.
Seattle Botanic Gardens, including:
The Miller Library Archive is the only privately funded, publicly accessible, focused horticultural archive in the Pacific Northwest. The Pacific Northwest is defined by us as Idaho, Washington, Oregon, California north of Lake Tahoe, and southern British Columbia.
Printed material, including text, photographs, notes, brochures and other ephemeral publications. We may accept materials in other formats, including audio and video recordings, depending on the feasibility of long-term preservation. We do require that items be in a usable format. The library may require items be converted to print or standard formats prior to donation. We cannot accept artifacts.
Upon receipt, all gift materials become the property of the University of Washington managed by Seattle Botanic Gardens. Donor is required to sign a “Deed of Gift” to transfer ownership, and convey/assign any literary rights, copyrights, or other rights for donated materials to the University of Washington. The University and Seattle Botanic Gardens reserve the right to determine retention, location, cataloging treatment, and other considerations relating to the use and disposition of gifts. Materials not selected for addition to our collection may be donated to other institutions, recycled, discarded or otherwise released.
We endeavor to accept only those materials that are in good condition and that will enrich our collections. Gifts will be handled responsibly and with care. Each item will be evaluated for addition to our holdings by highly trained staff. We regret that we are unable to notify donors of the final disposition of their gifts or return items not added to our collection.
All materials that are added to our holdings will be available for public research.
Each gift is acknowledged. Acknowledgment letters typically include the date of receipt and a brief description of the gift. We recommend that our donors prepare a detailed inventory and include a copy with their donations to support their charitable tax deductions. Donors of large gifts are urged to consider funds for processing and the preservation of their gifts.