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Originally Posted by lumpynose
My library does the same thing when I've donated books. After reading here about all the rigmarole they go through with publishers for ebooks I'm wondering if there are similar constraints with print books; i.e., that they're required to buy the books from the publishers.
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No, in most cases it's simply a matter of the labor involved to add them to the collection instead of selling them. A lot of libraries don't have the shelf space to accommodate many donations, so they would have to be sorted by hand, inspected, and then those that pass have to be prepared... It's a lot of work, and work is money spent, whereas sold books are money that can be turned into library resources and new books that are already deemed suitable to add to the collection.
Some libraries have just stopped accepting donations altogether because they simply can't accommodate them - instead they often refer donators to their local Friends of the Library, which usually is responsible for fund raising, including book sales. And some libraries still have to deal with people dropping off boxes of books in the middle of the night like reverse thieves.
While there may be some great, worthy books in some donation piles, the majority of them just are not and it simply isn't worth the time and trouble to deal with them. (I recall one librarian's tale of a man who insisted that the hundreds of outdated tech manuals he wanted to donate just HAD to be made available in the library.)