If you’ve recently had a spring clean, your bookshelves might have been trimmed down.
If you want to know know the best places to donate old books, this is your ultimate guide on where to donate books in Boston!
More Than Words
Donation Types: Drop off, Pick up from you, Drop off in book bin
Location: 2nd Floor 242 East Berkeley Street, Boston, MA 02118
Hours: Tue-Fri 10am-8pm; Sat-Sun 10am-6pm
Other Locations: Find all book bin locations here
Type of Books Not Accepted: Magazines, encyclopedias, textbooks older than 5 years
Website: MTW Youth
How to Donate
More Than Words makes donating easy – it’s a one-stop shop for your unwanted books and clothes. If you’re visiting one of their stores, simply pull up in one of their dedicated parking spots and leave your donation outside their door. They also have a number of donation container locations.
You can also have your donation collected for free by filling out their online form. Just be advised you’ll probably need a large amount of books for them to collect from you.
Support a great cause at the same time. More than 350 vulnerable young adults take part in the More Than Words program each year, which offers them a paid job in the book-selling business, learning skills from customer service to managing inventory. They are supported throughout the six to twelve month process through focused feedback and workshops, among other methods.
Prison Books
Donation Type: Drop off
Location: 1306 Hancock Street, Suite 100, Quincy, MA 02169
Hours: Tue & Thu 6:30-9pm; Wed & Sat 1:30-4pm;
Type of Books Accepted: See their top requests on their website
Type of Books Not Accepted: Hardcovers, encyclopedias, magazines, spiral bound books, books about conspiracy theories/disseminating information
Website: Prison Book Program
How to Donate
Visit the Prison Book Program during their volunteer hours above to drop off your books. Pleasingly, they’ll also accept self-published books as well as advanced reading/review copies. You can donate your books with the knowledge they’ll be going to educate and keep prisoners company.
Cradles to Crayons
Donation Type: Drop off, Book drive
Location: 281 Newtonville Avenue, Newton, MA 02460
Hours: 9am-5pm
Type of Books Accepted: This nonprofit is looking for books for children: board books, picture books, young adult books. They are currently in particular need of baby books for aged two and below.
Donation Receipt: Yes
Website: Cradles to Crayons
How to Donate
They encourage you to host a book drive and can provide you with help to collect all donated goods. Otherwise, they’re happy for you to drop off books in-store.
Cradles to Crayons distribute essential goods to disadvantaged children. It’s always important to bear the cause in mind when you’re deciding between the different places to donate books in Boston.
Massachusetts General Hospital for Children
Donation Type: Drop off (in December!)
Locations: 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114
Hours: Check before donating
Type of Books Accepted: Board books, coloring books for teens, children’s books
Donation Receipt: No
Website: Mass General
How to Donate
‘Tis the season to consider Massachusetts General Hospital for Children for book donations in Boston. If you’re willing to save your books for the beginning of December, you can donate them to the hospital for the children to be given as a part of a festive gift while they’re receiving treatment. Check out their website for more information about what they can accept, as you may have some other things at home that would be really appreciated.
If you’re unsure about anything or have any questions, you can call (617) 643-1819 or email hpeach@mgh.harvard.edu.
Boston Public Library
Donation Type: Drop off
Primary Location: 700 Boylston Street, Boston, MA 02116
Other Locations: Multiple
Hours: See Individual Location
Type of Books Accepted: Most!
Donation Receipt: Yes
Website: BPL
How to Donate
One of the best places to donate books in Boston: give your old books a new life, and support your local library at the same time. Drop off at the main branch any time, but be sure to call ahead if you’re gifting books to your local branch.
If you only have one box or bag, you can leave it at the Borrower Services Desk at the Boylston Street Entrance of the Copley Square Branch. Just make sure that it is clearly marked as a donation.
Other branches can accept donations, but you will need to contact them first. If you have more than one box or bag (and we mean a lot more!) you can contact their Collection Development Department via email collectiondevelopmemt@bpl.org or phone (617) 536-5400 x 5414 to discuss your donation.
Room To Grow
Donation Type: Drop off
Boston Location: 400 Shawmut Avenue, Boston, MA 02118
Hyde Park Location: 63 Sprague St. Hyde Park, MA 02136
Type of Books Accepted: Baby and toddler books in excellent condition
Donation Receipt: Yes
Website: Room to Grow
How to Donate
Book your donation online by using the link above. The Boston location is their larger warehouse, but both the central and Hyde Park locations will gladly take your books upon appointment.
Room to Grow offers personalized support and household items for low-income families who have children to support. If you’d like to support them further, they can also help businesses and other locations set up a book bin drop box for books as well as other important items for little ones.
Brookline Libraries
Donation Type: Drop off, Pick up from you
Brookline Village (larger donations): 361 Washington Street, Brookline, MA 02445
Coolidge Corner: 31 Pleasant Street, Brookline, MA 02446
Putterham: 959 West Roxbury Parkway, Chestnut Hill, MA 02467
Hours: Check individual libraries for opening times
Type of Books Accepted: Fiction, nonfiction, young adult books, children’s books
Type of Books Not Accepted: Magazines, dictionaries, encyclopedias, pocket books, textbooks
Website: Brookline Library
How to Donate
Smaller book donations of a few boxes can be brought to the front desk of any of the three locations.
For larger quantities, you’re welcome to leave the boxes at the loading dock behind the Brookline Village Library 24/7. The drive is located on School Street.
Brookline Library does offer a pick up service, though they don’t explicitly state how many books would warrant a pick up. To check and organize a pick up, please email them at: friendsofbrooklinelibrary@gmail.com
Lucy Parsons Center
Donation Type: Drop off
Location: 358A Centre St, Boston, Massachusetts 02130
Hours: Check their Instagram for the week’s hours
Type of Books Accepted: Nonfiction, self help books
Type of Books Not Accepted: Children’s books, textbooks
Website: Lucy Parsons Center
How to Donate
The Lucy Parsons Center refers to itself as a volunteer-run “radical bookstore and community space” that offers literature on social justice, anarchism, and activism. You can kind of figure out which sort of books would be acceptable to donate to their cause based on their mission statement.
Bay State Book Company
Donation Type: Drop off in book bin
Locations: See their website for updated book bin locations
Type of Books Accepted: Generally all kinds of books
See their locations at their website: Bay State Books
How to Donate
Bay State Books have book bins set up all over New England that will generally accept any kinds of books 24/7. Currently, there are two in the greater Boston area, but we advise checking their website for an up to date list.
The Fox & Robbin Shop
Donation Type: Drop off
Location: 175 Massachusetts Ave, Arlington, MA 02474
Hours: Tuesday, Friday, Saturday 9am-12pm; Thursday 9am-3:30pm
Type of Children’s Books Accepted: Board books, picture books, chapter books, and young adult books
Website: The Fox & Robbin Shop
How to Donate
Bring your children’s and baby books to the shop during the hours listed above. They’re a general donation store but use the proceeds of sales to fund The Fox Library in Arlington.
Big Brother Big Sister Foundation
Donation Type: Pick up from you
Type of Books Accepted: All types of books, including all textbooks
Type of Books Not Accepted: Magazines, catalogs
Website: BBBS Foundation
How to Donate
Visit the BBBS Foundation website, linked above, to schedule your pick up. Please note that your books won’t be reintroduced directly into the community, rather, they’ll be sold at various thrift shops to help raise money for Big Brother Big Sister programs.
Places to Donate Specific Types of Books in Boston
Children’s Books
Boston is full of deserving organizations who will take your gently used children’s books off your hands. Of the nonprofits we featured above, Cradles to Crayons will take books ranging from baby and board books to young adult fiction.
Mass General accepts baby and children’s books, and Room to Grow specializes in helping impoverished families, using children’s books in their efforts to do so.
All of the nonprofits we’ve mentioned have drop off information listed above.
Textbooks
The Big Brother Big Sister Foundation can make use of your gently used textbooks in their local programs.
Another place that might take your current textbooks is the UMass Boston Healey Library. The caveat is that your textbooks should be in great condition and up to date (think published within the last 2-3 years.) I recommend emailing the Healey Library admin to check they’d be interested in your titles: Library.Admin@umb.edu
Organizations That Offer Book Pick Up Services in Boston
The Big Brother Big Sister Foundation
The Big Brother Big Sister Foundation will pick up your books, and you can schedule this by phone or email (check out the information on their listing further up the article.)
Brookline Library Friends
The Friends of Brookline don’t state how many books you’d need in order to facilitate a pick up, but I would imagine you would need at least a few boxes. To confirm and arrange a pick up, please email them at: friendsofbrooklinelibrary@gmail.com
Bay State Book Company
Bay State Book Company isn’t a pick up service by nature, but they will pick up very large quantities of books from estates and things like that. They say you’ll need to have over 5,000 in order for them to do so (that’s a lot of books!)
Now you know exactly where you can donate books in Boston. The only hard part will be choosing which organization to give them to!
Cover image credit: More Than Words Youth
Hello,
I am looking for Medical books for an association in Morocco . I am currently in Boston for a week and would like if you can recommend us for good area where we will can find good donors
Kind regards
Chahidi
Sorry I can’t be of much help, our guides are mainly for those looking to donate books themselves. Wish you all the best in your search.
I’m an author and my book is science fiction fantasy a poor boy finds a genie. I want to donate to low i ncome kids. How can I do this where can I go ?
Cradles to Crayons/Mass General
I currently have many cubic feet of books, uncataloged, most older than 5 years, plus many paperbacks (fiction and non-fiction). No-one seems to want them. At this point I’m looking at putting them into my Boston recycling bin; they’re no longer of use to me and I’ve lost my storage space.
They’re boxed or bagged and they’re free to anyone who wants to collect them.
Do you still have them?
Any suggestions for where to donate the Millennium World Book Encyclopedias?
Hello – unfortunately most places don’t take encyclopedias. Sorry
Hi there, Looking to donate books we no longer use at our school. We have many books, and they need to go soon. Any interest?
I have books in boxes unopened would you like them to send them to foreign countries
Contact me
Yvonneingalls@ me.com
I have a large number of older legal books including Mass General Laws etc if anyone is interested.
I have the whole series of Alexander Kent books. Also Hornblower books and Bernard Cornwell. Anyone still interested in those books?
Hi Tom, I have a hundred or so books from the 1930s–1970s of classic Green and Roman texts, in the original languages, bilingual, scholarly, etc. They were owned by a classics-oriented friend. Any suggestions?
Sorry I can’t be of much help with these types – potentially try a school or university library.