Do you accept book donations? As a books through bars group, this is a question we receive all the time. The answer is yes, but a more realistic answer might be it’s complicated.
We are incredibly grateful for the generous book donations we receive—a significant portion of the books we send out to incarcerated folks have ultimately come to us in this way. That said, if you want to support us, donating books is probably not the best way to do so. Here are a few reasons why:
1. Book donations don’t match up very well with the requests we receive.
In our experience, there will always be a mismatch between the titles we receive as donations and the specific requests we get from incarcerated individuals. While we are often given donations of literary fiction, short stories, poetry, and classics, we receive very few requests for these kinds of books. Some of our most highly requested titles are almanacs, role-playing game books, and urban fiction, but we very rarely receive donations of these books. (For a more detailed breakdown of the requests we do receive, take a look at this recent newsletter piece.) We believe that, especially within the context of a dehumanizing environment where virtually all of one’s freedoms are taken away, it is particularly important to respect the autonomy of our clients to dictate their own wants and needs regarding information and books. With this goal in mind, the difference between the kinds of books we receive and the kinds of books that are requested is an important distinction.
2. Book donations can be time-consuming.
Facilitating book donations can be a time-consuming process because it can be difficult to ensure that a particular donation will align well with our needs. In the case of book drives, the time we spend clarifying what donations we can and cannot use ends up not being worth the result, which is usually a handful of books we can use mixed in with plenty of books that will simply sit on the shelves. The time we spend sorting through donations that are misaligned with our needs could be better spent sending out and ordering books.
3. We have a very small space that cannot accommodate large amounts of book donations.
Unlike larger organizations, our humble office lacks storage space. Our very small premises simply cannot accommodate large numbers of donations. We’re extremely grateful for donors’ willingness to give books away, but we need to be a bit picky about what books we accept.
For all these reasons, book donations can get a little complicated. We don’t want people to stop donating books to us but, as outlined in this article on the trouble with donating goods instead of money to relief efforts, the unglamorous truth is that monetary donations are much more useful to us. We know that not everyone has the resources to donate money, but if you can, this really is the best way to help us out. Monetary donations help us to purchase the many books that we order especially for individual requests (for about $100, we can purchase enough books for one person for a whole year).