Are books and professional society memberships allowable expenses under US federal grants? Can you include books and/or professional society memberships in expenses under grants from agencies like NSF and NIH?  

I've purchased lots of books under grants from DOE and the Air Force in the past, but I'm wondering if they're generally considered allowable.  My quick searching uncovered the following:


NIH seems to explicitly allow books at least
NSF: I'm guessing books are allowed under "materials and supplies"


I haven't found anything about allowability of professional society memberships.
The page you linked to in your question directly addresses memberships for NIH:


  Dues or Membership Fees
  
  Allowable as an F&amp;A cost for organizational membership in business, professional, or technical organizations or societies.
  
  Payment of dues or membership fees for an individual’s membership in a professional or technical organization is allowable as a fringe benefit or an employee development cost, if paid according to an established organizational policy consistently applied regardless of the source of funds.


I agree with your conclusion about books for NSF grants, and their page oddly doesn't list information about memberships. I would imagine that it could arguably fall under the section related to conference fees, but that's conjecture.