Donating your books to local libraries and charities
On a regular basis, I declutter my life. I get rid of toxic people around me, clothes I do no longer use, excess swag (yes, being a popular social media personality has perks, but accumulating swag is one of the drawbacks), and sometimes, books I cannot keep any longer. Or sometimes I want to just make space in my rather scarce bookshelf space (I am a book nerd, and I love actual print books who don’t need batteries, much as the world thinks that the print book is dead, which is a fallacy).
This week, while cleaning up my Mom’s house (I have a bedroom here, and a home office which is, as usual, chock-full of books of all walks of my life) I realized that I had way too many books and journal issues from my undergrad, my Masters and even my PhD, and decided to donate those books that I felt were good, readable and would be of value to libraries. Since I no longer do chemical engineering, I decided to donate all of my books to my alma mater’s library (I did my undergraduate degree in Mexico). I did something similar in Vancouver, but to my surprise, I found UBC and SFU’s policies for book donation rather ridiculous (they choose what they can or cannot receive).
I sought then to donate my books to my local library (Mount Pleasant Community Centre has a branch of the Vancouver Public Library), which was great. The only weird thing that left me scratching my head was the fact that VPL does not accept textbook donations. So, all of you undergraduates and high-schoolers who go to the VPL to study, you’re going to the wrong place, apparently!?
One thing that I’ve been simmering in my head (or cooking, better said) is to promote the creation of Reading Rooms in local shelters and/or other places where people congregate. What do you think? Crazy idea? Where else can you donate books?
I feel like it makes sense that they choose what they will and will not accept. Librarians know what they have in the collection and what will be borrowed by patrons. Textbooks, especially in science based fields become obsolete quite quickly and students rarely take out textbooks anyways. Libraries have limited space and although I am sure they appreciate receiving donations of books, they have to be picky about what they can take in. They don’t really need 100 copies of Pride and Prejudice, do they?
My friend’s neighbour had an interesting idea. She set out a small bookcase outside (mostly weatherproof) with doors and it’s labelled as a “community library.” There is no sign-in or sign-out, so it’s completely on the honour system. You can “donate” books to this collection as you see fit and borrow whatever tickles your fancy.