Mostly these materials are duplicates not needed by the repository. The materials however are usually less-used materials, which do not in fact need recycling. An option is to offer the de-duplicated materials as development aid to countries that have to rely on book donations. The problem is again to select needed materials. It is not right to use the libraries in developing countries as dumping places of obsolete books.
Some repositories recycle materials both in the country and to developing countries.
Repository libraries can have special materials in their collections. In some cases, repository libraries can accommodate collections of materials in minority languages. In some cases, they cooperate closely with libraries for the visually handicapped and keep available Braille books, which are not needed anymore in the active collections. The digital environment has created a new need for repository libraries. First of all, the need for remote storage facilities increases as libraries throughout the world are moving increasing portions of their print collections to remote storage as the amount of electronic material grows and the facilities connected to it have to be accommodated by libraries.