Passing on a library: planning for your heirs

Collections are often cleared in a hurry, by people who love the collector but do not know the books. The handful of copies that mattered — a signed first printing, a family Bible, a book with a story — can easily go to a charity shop with the rest. A short written note, made now, is the simplest way to stop that happening.

• Where the list of books is kept, and how to open it.
• Which few books deserve an expert’s look before anything is sold, donated or thrown away — and why, in plain words.
• What you would like to happen: a book for a particular person, a part of the collection for a library, the rest sold or given away.
• Who to ask: a dealer, a friend who collects, a society for the subject.
• Where the receipts, letters and other papers about the books are.

• Write for someone who has never heard of a number line or a points-of-issue. "Signed by the author on the title page — ask a dealer before selling" is enough.
• Keep the important list short. Ten books flagged clearly are more useful than a thousand-row spreadsheet nobody reads.
• Do not let the list depend on a password only you know. Keep a printed or downloaded copy with your other papers, and make sure someone else can reach the catalogue.
• Mark the important books on the shelf too, with a slip of paper or a label, so they can be found even without the list.

Keep the note and the list where your other important papers are, and tell whoever will handle your affairs that they exist. If you want particular books to go to particular people, a note may not be enough on its own; ask whoever helps with your will how to make your wishes count.

This guide is practical advice for collectors, not legal or tax advice. Rules about wills, estates and gifts differ from country to country.

• Cataloguing a collection for insurance →
• Selling or downsizing a book collection →