Libraries work differently — so do we
Most of what you'll read on our site is written for homeowners: leave your boxes on the porch by 8 AM, we come sometime between 8 AM and 8 PM. That's a fine answer for a front porch. It's a terrible answer for a library, and librarians have told us so.
So for libraries, we run it your way:
Docks, back rooms, and side doors
Not a porch. Tell us where the boxes actually live and where the truck should pull in.
Staffed hours, not a 12-hour window
We schedule inside the hours someone is there to unlock a door and point at a pallet.
Hard cutoffs, not guesses
A Friends sale cleanup usually has a hard cutoff. Tell us the date the room has to be empty and we'll be there before it.
Volume that doesn't scare us
Twenty boxes or a full storage room — we size the pickup to the pile, not the other way around.
The referral you can always make
Every library gets this call. Someone inherited a house. Someone is downsizing. A teacher is clearing out thirty years of a classroom. They have four hundred books, or a thousand, and they want them to go somewhere that matters — and your intake limit is a fraction of that.
Right now the honest answer is "we can take two boxes," and the donor still has the other three hundred and ninety-eight. Send them to us instead. We go to them — their house, their garage, their storage unit — and take the whole lot for free.
You get to send them somewhere helpful without taking on books you have no room for.
The donors your policy can't serve
Textbooks. Encyclopedia sets. Older editions. Condensed volumes. Boxes of paperbacks in the wrong genre for your sale table. Every library has a list of what it can't accept, and every list creates a donor standing there holding books nobody will take.
We don't have that list. Hard or soft, old or new, whatever the subject — if it's a book, it has a next reader somewhere in the Network. Refer the donor to us and the conversation ends with a scheduled pickup instead of a shrug.
Overflow at the donation drop-off
Donations rarely arrive at a convenient pace. They arrive in a weekend. The donation drop-off spot fills, the bin overflows, boxes start stacking against the wall by the donation door, and suddenly staff are triaging cardboard instead of doing their jobs.
Call us when it's stacking up and we'll clear it, usually within days. Nobody has to be turned away at the drop-off, and the boxes don't sit in a hallway until someone has a free Saturday.
We come to the dock, on your schedule.
Weeded books, discards, and Friends sale leftovers
Weeding is healthy collection management, not failure. But "withdrawn from this collection" is not the same as "worthless." A title that no longer earns its shelf space in your building is often exactly what a homeschool family, a small-town book stand, or a classroom is looking for.
Same after a Friends of the Library sale. The last tables still have good books on them — they just ran out of buyers in one weekend, in one town. We'll take the leftovers before your deadline and put them back in circulation instead of a dumpster.
Those books also feed our Give ME Books program, where libraries, schools, teachers, and Little Free Libraries can request free books for their shelves and programs.
Run your own donation pickup system
Some libraries and Friends groups already pick up books from the community — usually with a phone list, a shared inbox, and a volunteer's memory. It works until it doesn't.
We can put the same infrastructure the Network runs nationwide behind your own operation: a "Schedule a Pickup" button that lives on your website, under your library's brand, with donors never leaving your site and the Network staying out of view.
Areas by day
Decide which neighborhoods get picked up on which days.
Daily limits
Cap how many pickups a day so no one gets overwhelmed.
Assign staff & volunteers
Give each person their own list for the day.
Automatic route optimization
Stops ordered for you — less driving, fewer hours.
Automated reminders
Donors get confirmations and reminders, so no-shows nearly disappear.
One unified source
Every request in one place instead of three inboxes and a notepad.
Here's a look at the back end your team would be working in — the same system our Pick-Up Partners use every day to keep donations and routes organized.
This one isn't a form-and-go — it's a conversation. Every library system is built a little differently. and we'll walk your team through what it would look like.
Already used by library and Friends groups across 46 states and 9,790 cities.
Coming soon
Scheduled drop-offs
We're building a way for donors to book a drop-off time at your library instead of showing up unannounced, so the flow through your door is spread out and staffed. Interested in scheduling drop-offs to manage your flow? Let us know and we'll bring you in early.
We're not competing with you
"To the making of many books, there is no end."
People who want to give to their library will give to their library, and they should. There will never be a shortage of books headed your way. What we handle is everything past your capacity and outside your policy — the part that would otherwise end in a "no" or a dumpster.
Book every pickup through the Network
Requests come in through us and get routed to a local Pick-Up Partner. Some areas confirm right away; in newer areas your request goes out to Partners nearby and we keep you posted until it's claimed. Either way, keep scheduling through the Network — even with the same friendly Partner each time. That's how the pickup is tracked, backed up if someone is out, and counted toward how we're serving libraries nationwide.
More about the Network
Libraries are one part of what we do. Here are the other places to point donors, staff, and volunteers depending on what they need.
Give ME Books
Request free books for your collection, programs, or Little Free Libraries.
Where to Donate Books
The page to hand to a donor you have to turn away — with a live ZIP lookup.
About the Network
Who we are, how Pick-Up Partners work, and how the books find new homes.
Service Areas
The live coverage map and full city list across the Network.
FAQ
What we accept, how pickups run, and what donors should expect.
Tell us about your library
Whether it's a one-time cleanup, a standing pickup after every sale, or your own branded pickup system, start here and we'll reach out.
Ready now? Schedule a free pickup
Enter your library's ZIP code to see the next available date. Boxes, bags, loose stacks, or a full room — it all works.
Pickup Request Form
Enter your ZIP code to begin your pickup request