What to do with your old textbooks

Written by Aldis Brennan

Beginning last week on April 5, a number of book receptacles could be spotted in the University Center courtyard, the Bullring, and the Co-op Bookstore. These bins are for the Books for Africa book drive.

The Books for Africa organization is dedicated to the collecting, sorting, shipping, and distribution of donated books to children in Africa. While the book’s final destination is the non-profit Books for Africa, there is an intermediary: Better World Books (BWB). BWB describes itself as a for-profit social venture, meaning that it makes money in order to supply revenue for its non-profit affiliates such as Books for Africa. It is BWB that is responsible for organizing book drives such as the one here at the University of Guelph.
Jasmine Sereda, one of the student organizers of the event, explained the process.
“We collect textbooks during the exam period, because that is when students no longer need their books, and we ship the acceptable ones to Better World Books in the U.S,” said Sereda. “They decide which ones to send to Books for Africa and which ones to sell online to make money for Books for Africa.”
Sereda also outlined why the organization sends books to Africa rather than money or some other essential resource.
“We’re students. We don’t have a lot of money. But we do have books,” explained Sereda. “Sometimes we can’t sell them back to the bookstore or on the Cannon. Unless we decide that a certain book would be useful to have in the future, it feels great to give the gift of education to some that might not get it otherwise.”
The piles of leftover textbooks that a student accrues over his or her university career are certainly formidable. Even assuming that one book is required for each and every class in a four year program and that five classes are taken a semester, this amounts to 40 books. University of Guelph student Alana Bauer understands this situation well.
“I have about fifty books just sitting in my closet that I don’t need or want anymore,” said Bauer. “I can’t even justify selling them. A first year philosophy textbook cost over a hundred dollars and I only made four dollars back selling it. This [Books for Africa] campaign seems like a good way to get rid of unused and space-hogging textbooks by giving them to people who really need them.”
As for whom the books actually go to, this is determined by Books for Africa after they receive what is left over from what BWB couldn’t sell. According to Books for Africa itself, the books go to children of 13 different African countries such as Sierra Leone, Rwanda, and Uganda, to name a few.
This effort to increase the literacy of people all over Africa is no easy task and even at the local level, Books for Africa needs help. Organizers such as Sereda encourage those interested in volunteering, donating, or just asking questions to email them at uogbfa@gmail.com before the event ends on the April 23.

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