What Is the Community Book-Sharing Program in Charlotte?

The community book-sharing program is the loop that begins at your porch and ends on someone else's shelf. Give My Books Network collects donated books free from Charlotte homes, a Local Pick-Up Partner sorts them offsite, and many titles are passed forward to organizations that asked for them.

A Local Pick-Up Partner is the locally owned family business doing the collecting. Not a national carrier, not a truck from out of state. Somebody who lives close enough to know which streets flood when the afternoon storm comes through.

How Does the Give ME Books Program Work?

Organizations request titles through the Give ME Books program, and partners fill those requests from what they collect. Schools, libraries, nonprofits, literacy programs, senior centers, and after-school tutoring programs all sit on the receiving side.

• Title I classrooms asking for readers and chapter books
• ESL programs looking for early-level titles
• After-school tutoring programs and homeschool families
• Senior centers, shelters, and prison literacy programs
• Little Free Libraries that have run empty

More than 200,000 books have been redistributed since 2008, which is a number built one porch at a time.

Who Receives Books in Charlotte

Charlotte organizations that ask. Requests come from classrooms, tutoring programs, community centers, and stewards of Little Free Libraries, and partners fill what they can from what has been collected nearby.

Nothing here is automatic, and we will not dress it up. A book donated in Villa Heights may end up in a classroom three miles away or a program in another county. What is true is that requests get filled from real donations, and that the pile in your garage is the supply side of the whole arrangement.

Where to Donate Books to Charlotte Schools and Libraries

Schools and libraries take donations directly, within limits. A Charlotte Mecklenburg Library branch accepts small batches of current titles, and a classroom drive accepts children's books while it runs. For anything larger, Give My Books Network collects the whole pile free and routes many of those titles to the same kinds of organizations through Give ME Books.

Little Free Libraries Along the Little Sugar Creek Greenway

Little Free Libraries run dry faster than anyone expects. The boxes near the Little Sugar Creek Greenway and on the side streets of Plaza Midwood get emptied by joggers, dog walkers, and kids on scooters, and the stewards refill them out of their own shelves.

Those stewards are exactly who benefits when a big donation gets sorted properly. A box of paperbacks that would sit unread in a garage refills four of those boxes for a month.

How to Take Part From Plaza Midwood or Villa Heights

Enter your ZIP code, choose a service day, and pack the books. Give My Books Network sends a Local Pick-Up Partner to collect what is packed and waiting, between 8 AM and 8 PM, at no cost.

1. Pack into boxes, totes, or doubled grocery bags. Partners do not bring boxes.
2. Keep every container to a weight one person can carry.
3. Have it all outside by 8 AM, under a porch roof or inside an open garage.
4. Leave a note in the booking if the spot is not obvious.

What the Program Does Not Promise

Not every book is donated, and no donation is routed to a specific school by request. Some items are resold by the partner, and that resale is what pays for the free collection, the vehicle, and the sorting hours.

The American Library Association's resource on book donation programs makes a similar point about realistic expectations. A small share, the books no reader will take, may eventually be recycled as a last resort. Everything else gets a fair shot at a second reader, which is the most anyone can honestly offer.