What Is the Community Book-Sharing Program in Minneapolis?

A community book-sharing program is a loop: books leave a house that no longer needs them and reach a reader who does. Give My Books Network runs that loop through free doorstep collection and the Give ME Books redistribution program.

Minneapolis is unusually good soil for this. One of the most literate cities in the country, a library system people genuinely defend, and a region that invented the Little Free Library. The habit was already here. The network just moves the heavy part.

How Does the Give ME Books Program Redistribute Books?

Organizations request titles, and Local Pick-Up Partners fill those requests from what they collect. Schools, libraries, nonprofits, literacy programs, ESL classrooms, senior centers, shelters, and after-school tutoring programs all sit on the receiving end.

Where to Donate Books to Minneapolis Schools and Libraries

Book a free collection with Give My Books Network and let the request system do the routing. Direct drives are the other path, and they work well for children's books when a school is actually running one, which is not most of the year.

How Little Free Libraries Fit the Minneapolis Community Book-Sharing Network

Little Free Libraries handle the small end of the loop beautifully and the large end not at all. Three paperbacks fit. Eleven boxes from a Seward attic do not.

Walk the paths near Minnehaha Falls and you will pass several of them, most stocked by whoever lives closest. Rural Little Free Libraries that have run dry are among the organizations that request titles through the Give ME Books program, so a box collected in Longfellow can end up restocking one somewhere else entirely.

Who Can Request Books From the Program?

Any organization that serves readers: schools, public libraries, nonprofits, literacy programs, community centers, senior centers, homeschool cooperatives, ESL classrooms, shelters, and prison literacy programs.

• Title I classrooms rebuilding a reading corner
• ESL and multilingual programs looking for accessible titles
• After-school tutoring programs that run through chapter books quickly
• Senior centers and shelters that request large-print and paperback fiction
• Little Free Libraries that have been emptied faster than they can be filled

How Do Minneapolis Donors Feed the Network?

By packing a box and setting it outside. Give My Books Network handles everything after that, at no cost to the donor and with no minimum quantity.

1. Enter your ZIP code and pick a service day. If a Local Pick-Up Partner serves your ZIP code, booking is immediate.
2. If not, submit anyway. The request enters the out-of-area pickup system, where nearby partners may claim it.
3. Pack your own boxes. Partners do not bring boxes.
4. Set them in a dry, covered spot by 8 AM. The covered porch beats the boulevard, every time, and always in winter.

What the Program Does Not Promise

Not every book is donated, and no specific book is promised to any specific classroom. Local Pick-Up Partners sort offsite, redistribute many items through Give ME Books, and resell others.

Resale is what funds the free collection, and hiding that would be dishonest. Items that cannot be reused may eventually be recycled as a last resort. The American Library Association's Book Donation Programs resource explains why a straightforward promise of book-to-shelf almost never survives contact with reality, however good the intentions behind it.