Free Book Problem

[irish80122]

I am not sure how many people are to this stage but I thought I would throw this out there to see if anyone has advice.

I am in a role where I help run a course at a major university and, for that reason, am listed as an instructor for every section. Book publishers see this and decide to send me every Psychology 101 book under the sun. I currently have in my office a collection of the books that the person in my position has been sent over the last three years and it is as tall as I am if all stacked upon one another.

The question is what can I do with these books? No one I have asked has any interest in them, I know I am not permitted to sell them, and I really don't want them! I don't make the decisions on which textbook we use, so they really do me little good. What is the proper way to get rid of them? I am guessing you are technically not allowed to donate them, or else I would give them to Goodwill. Do you throw them out (seems like a waste)? Do you send them back to the publisher somehow?

I just have no idea what to do with them but they are starting to take over my office and my office mates aren't happy about it (and neither am I).

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[Therapist4Chnge]

Call and ask the publisher?

A couple of my friends get a TON of books from publishers, and since they are rather niche in their area....they often have few people who would actually read them. They end up swapping books with other professors who may find them interesting, which takes care of the "selling" part as well as having them not going to total waste.

People run into the same issue with getting books to review, particularly when they may not be final format for print....those tend to be kept/tossed /returned for confidentiality reasons.

 

[paramour]

I used to have the same problem and typically stuck those extras that I wasn't interested in keeping in a pile with some of the other profs' discarded books. They were eventually either (a) placed in a hallway somewhere for any interested person to pick up if they wanted it, and/or (b) donated to an individual who would sell them at some charity-type bookfair thingermajig.

 

[BorntoRun]

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[moonflwr]

What about donating them to the school's library? The library at my UG would take just about anything.