Lipscomb University students send used textbooks to Africa
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This year, instead of sending non-returnable books to a landfill, students at Lipscomb University are sending them to Africa through the non-profit company, Books for Africa, which works in partnership with Better World Books.
The book drive, which was initiated on Lipscomb's campus by Joe Garcia, eFollet textbook manager at Lipscomb, provides students the option to send books that no longer have any market value to third world countries where the books can be used to fight illiteracy.
Returned textbooks go through a process wherein different companies decide if the book has any market value here. Once the last company has picked through the books, the ones left go to a landfill because no one else will take them, said Garcia.
"I have been looking for something more resourceful to do with these books and was excited to discover this program at a conference. This program enables us to put the books to excellent use by sending them to educational programs that will be able to maximize their use. In those countries, these books will be like gold."
The books will be shipped to Africa and go to help children learn how to read, help fill libraries and schools and be used to promote literacy instead of filling up landfills, according to Books For Africa.
The response to the book drive at Lipscomb exceeded expectations.
"Students were donating not only books they could no longer get money for, but also books that still had some market value," said Garcia. "We had a tremendous response and were able to donate about 500 lbs. of books. We are very optimistic about this program and will probably be continuing to participate in the years to come.
"Our involvement in this program is especially important because Lipscomb is an institution that was founded on Christian principles. It is essential for us to find ways to live out our beliefs. This program provides such a chance. Instead of just throwing books away, we can now send them to others who are less privileged and will be able to still use them. This situation benefits everyone."
In the past three years, Better World Books has organized book drives on more than 300 college campuses across the country, collecting more than 600,000 book donations in those three years. Over the past two years, the company has kept more than 1 million pounds of used books from ending up in landfills, according to betterworldbooks.com.
Working with one of its closest non-profit partners, Books for Africa, Better World Books has funded the shipment of more than 500,000 books to the continent of Africa since 2003 and has shipped more than 25,000 books directly to Africa through Books for Africa.
For more information about Lipscomb's Books for Africa book drive, contact Garcia at 615.279.6251 or by emailing joe.garcia [at] lipscomb.edu.
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