A new initiative has been launched this week encouraging students and staff to donate any unwanted books to the Library as part of the Better World Books charitable scheme.

Better World Books is an initiative which collects unwanted books from organisations such as universities and libraries, to then sell on to generate funds for literacy initiatives around the world. For every book sold, a book is donated to someone in need. Better World Books also provide literacy grants of up to £1000 to non-profit organisations and libraries within the UK and Europe.

The Library will be accepting any unwanted books from both staff and students and small amounts can be dropped off to us at the Pilkington Library reception. If you have a large amount of books to donate, please email library@lboro.ac.uk in advance so we can make the necessary arrangements.

All genres of books are welcome. In particular, the scheme is looking for:

• Academic non-fiction and all other non-fiction
• Children’s books
• Education/Technical/Vocational books
• Ex-library books
• Hardback/Paperback fiction
• Travel books
• University and Secondary textbooks and study guides
• Other books used in University and Secondary classrooms

Please note that we cannot accept any journals, magazines or periodicals.

By donating books, you are supporting the University’s current campaign, ‘Waste… let’s get it sorted’ by reusing rather than sending to landfill. Any books not sold by Better World Books will either be donated or recycled – no book is sent to landfill.

For more information about the scheme, visit the Sustainability webpages.