What Is the Community Book-Sharing Program in St. Louis?

The community book-sharing program is the circle that a donated book travels: out of your house, through a Local Pick-Up Partner, and into the hands of a reader who asked for it. Give My Books Network has been running that circle since 2008.

A Local Pick-Up Partner is the locally owned family business handling collections on your side of town. Nothing about it is corporate, and nothing about it costs you anything.

How Do Books Move Through St. Louis Neighborhoods?

Books move from porches to partners to organizations that requested them. A partner collects on a scheduled service day, sorts everything offsite, and passes titles along through the Give ME Books program to whoever has asked for them.

Some items are resold, and that resale is what pays for the free pickup. Some cannot find a reader at all, and those may eventually be recycled, as a last resort. Nobody is going to tell you every book stays in Soulard, because that would not be true.

Where to Donate Books to St. Louis Schools and Libraries

Book a free doorstep pickup and note in the request that you are hoping the books reach classrooms. Give My Books Network cannot promise a specific school, but early readers and children's titles are the most-requested category in the program by a wide margin, and they move fast.

Can I Stock a Little Free Library With Donated Books?

Yes, and stewards do it constantly. Little Free Libraries on the corners of Lafayette Square and along the streets near Forest Park run dry faster than people expect, especially the children's shelf.

• Keep a small stash at home and refill your neighborhood box weekly.
• Send the rest through a pickup rather than stacking boxes underneath the box.
• Rain gets in. Only put out what the little door can actually close on.
• Stewards can also request titles through the Give ME Books program.

How Do Organizations Request Books in St. Louis?

Schools, libraries, nonprofits, shelters, senior centers, ESL classrooms, and after-school tutoring programs can request titles through the Give ME Books program. Requests are matched against what partners have collected, which changes week to week.

What Give My Books Network will not do is promise that a given box lands at a given address. The American Library Association's Book Donation Programs resource is clear about why matching donations to real, stated needs works better than dropping boxes on an institution that never asked.

What Does the Community Get Out of It?

Affordable books, refilled shelves, and a lot fewer boxes headed for a landfill. A community book-sharing network works because the same book can serve three people before it ever wears out.

Donors clear a shelf for free. Partners earn a living through resale. Classrooms and Little Free Libraries get titles they asked for. Everybody wins, which sounds like a slogan until you have watched it happen on your own block.

How to Join In From Your Own Porch

Enter your ZIP code, pick a service day, pack your books, and set them out by 8 AM. A Local Pick-Up Partner collects between 8 AM and 8 PM, and nobody needs to be home for any of it.

Partners do not bring boxes, so pack in advance using whatever you have. Give My Books Network has redistributed more than 200,000 books over 18 years of doing exactly that. Pack what you have, set it out, schedule the pickup, done.