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Our Mass school library list had a discussion about donating books
overseas and the following letter was posted.

World Library Partnership
Inform the World Program

Book Donation
Think Twice Before you Donate Books
Have you ever stared at a pile of old school books and
wondered if someone, somewhere could use them? If so,
the thought may have crossed your mind to send them
off to a developing country. Surely that would be
better than throwing them away=D6

Perhaps not. My colleagues and I have first-hand
experience with the problems caused by book donation
in several countries. Here are some things to consider
before you give your books to a book donation agency
or ship them off to a developing country:

Are there hidden costs? In many countries, the
recipients of a book shipment must pay customs fees,
port taxes and other charges. They must also pay to
transport the books from the port of entry to their
final destination. These costs can often be more than
the books are worth!
Are the materials in good shape? Books that are
outdated, damaged and worthless here are going to be
just as useless abroad. Remember that books also mold
quickly when shipped by sea.
Is the information useful? Rural African schools with
no electricity don't need books on microwave cooking
or skiing, both of which we have seen on library
shelves.
Are they in the right language? I know of a library in
South Africa that got an entire shipment of moldy
books in Czech.
Are the materials culturally appropriate? Many books
written for US audiences have cultural references that
make no sense abroad. They may even be offensive.
Romance novels, which seem to be popular donations,
are distasteful at best to many Africans.
In addition to all these points, it is important to
consider that book donation can actually HARM school
libraries. Many schools do not allocate funds for
books because they hope to get them donated. If the
donated books are a huge disappointment, this kills
support for the library.

Book donation also takes business away from indigenous
booksellers and publishers. I cannot stress enough the
importance of local publishing. Africa is information
rich, but book poor. Without more African publishing,
huge areas of knowledge will be lost. Entire languages
may disappear. Every dollar spent on buying books in
Africa helps to ensure that African authors will be
able to publish their work in their own countries.

An alternative use for your old books would be to sell
them and donate the money to a program that purchases
new books for schools and libraries in developing
countries. The World Library Partnership runs a book
certificate program that enables African libraries to
purchase books at the Zimbabwe International Book
=46air. This gives the librarians the opportunity to
choose what they purchase, thereby ensuring that the
materials will match the needs and interests of
library users.

If enough people ask, book donation organizations may
even change their policies and start purchasing some
materials abroad. When you consider the costs of
shipping, you can often get a lot more books for the
buck by buying them in Africa.

Laura Wendell
Executive Director
The World Library Partnership
3101 Guess Rd. Suite D
Durham, NC 27705
919-479-0163
http://worldlibraries.org

At 1:09 PM -0600 11/2/03, Susan Uthoff wrote:
>On Tues., Oct. 28 "Hints from Heloise" was promoting a new website to
>encourage people to recycle used books and keep them out of landfills.
>Her webpage has links to various organizations that accept books. Since
>this question comes up on the listserv from time to time, I thought I'd
>pass it along. http://www.adoptalibrary.org/
>
>Sarah S. Uthoff
>Reference Librarian
>Kirkwood Community College
>Cedar Rapids, IA
uthoff@infionline.net

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