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September 20, 2019, by Sarah

Over £11,400 raised to support literacy projects!

Over the summer, we’ve been removing some final copies of low-use books from our libraries and stores in order to improve access to more relevant texts. We’ve worked with our academic community to make decisions about which titles to discard. In this blog post, we want to tell you a bit more about what happens to those books now.

Since 2015, we’ve partnered with the social business Better World Books to dispose of stock which we’ve withdrawn from our UK libraries. Like them, we feel passionately about keeping books out of landfill and Better World Books are the world’s biggest socially responsible used bookseller.

Boxes being packed to send to Better World Books

They collect our books (free of charge) and sell them online. Book sales allow Better World Books’ nonprofit partners to provide better lives and a chance for economic, social and political freedom through literacy. The full 10.5% commission that we would have earned through the sale of our withdrawn stock goes to our chosen literacy partner, Read International. The charity was founded in 2004 by students from the University of Nottingham when one student’s travels to Tanzania exposed him to the lack of resources in the country.

In our last update in March 2018, we’d raised £8,463 to help fund educational resources in Tanzanian secondary schools. Since then, the £2,941 commission brings this total to just over £11,400! In a small way, we’re pleased to support Read International’s work which to date has seen the creation of 107 fully furnished libraries in 21 regions in Tanzania. Changing the way Tanzania reads, one book at a time.

Pallet of books ready to send to BetterWorld Booksfor BWB

 

Previous related posts:

March 2018, We’ve raised £8,463 to support literacy projects #WorldBookDay

March 2017, Better World Books update

March 2016, We’ve raised over £1,100 to support literacy projects in Tanzania!

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