Donated Books, Old Books. What to do?

Hello,
A couple of years ago I was asked a question: What do I do with books that have been donated to our school? I thought I would address this again since we are coming into spring cleaning time and you may have this issue to deal with.
When someone wants to donate books to our library, I say something like this. “Thank you so much for the books. I’ll be happy to look through them and see what the library can use. If I find some in here that we aren’t able to use, is it OK if I share them around?” Usually the donor is just happy to find a home and does not care what you do with them. I now have permission to do whatever I like with the books.

Here are some options for disposing of books:
1. Put the ones that you think might sell on a sale table at your school. Charge $0.25 or less for them. You’d be surprised how many parents will come in and buy these books. Also it is a little bit of income for the library.
2. Donate them to a local daycare or children’s hospital.
3. Take them to a used bookstore and exchange them for books that you CAN use. I do this with my personal books and have a credit at a used bookstore in town.
4. Toss them into a dumpster. Call this the “black bag” method if it helps you feel better.

People have a real problem tossing books in the dumpster. I’m not sure why. If a toy or machine gets old, worn out, or broken and cannot be repaired, those get thrown out. Old, worn-out clothing is discarded. What is the difference with books? If a book is missing pages, toss it. If you cannot repair it and it is not worth sending to a professional for repair, toss it. If it is too old and the information is outdated, toss it. No information is better than wrong information. Repeat that phrase over and over until you are comfortable with it. No information is better than wrong information. You may decide to keep some books for historical purposes, but those will be few.

If a book is unattractive, but the information or story is good, then fix the cover. Make a book jacket for it. One way is to measure the height of the book and the width of the two covers and spine plus at least two inches on each side. Then cut a large piece of paper to fit the book. Now you can decorate it. Make sure to put the title in the spine area plus the spine label. You might find a great picture of the original cover online that you can copy and paste on the book jacket. The main thing is to make the book look attractive.

One idea that I have used is to have a shelf of these good but unattractive books and then I ask students to help me decide if the books are worth the space on our shelves. I asked a class or two to choose a book, read it and let me know if it is a good story and if they think other students might like to read it. If they think it is a good story, they can make a dust jacket for the book. They put a line on the back of the dust jacket that tells who designed the cover and what grade they are in. This would be a great book report idea plus get covers made for some of your books.

I hope you can use some of these ideas. I also give you permission to throw away books that you cannot use! Have a good week,
Audrey