PBA Book Drive to support Prison Book Program!
July 10 - August 11, 2023
This summer, the Mass General Brigham (MGB) Post-Baccalaureate Association’s (PBA) Volunteering and Community Outreach committee is hosting a book drive to support Prison Book Program (PBP) by collecting new and gently used books to be sent to people in prison across the country. Get all the information about where to drop off books and other ways to support the drive below, and find out more about PBP (including how to volunteer) in the tabs above.
PBP supports people in prison by sending them free books & print resources that meet their specific needs & interests. This drive is hosted by PBA, an MGB group that supports young professionals’ career growth & aims to support those in our hospital community & beyond.
For questions about book collection, email Emma Johnston at egjohnston@mgh.harvard.edu. For questions about volunteering with PBP, email Bea at bea@prisonbookprogram.org.
Three ways to participate:
1. Donate books
New and used paperback books can be donated at any of several drop-off boxes in the greater Boston area. Scroll down for drop-off locations and more!
Questions about donating? Feel free to contact Emma Johnston at egjohnston@mgh.harvard.edu.
2. Buy books online
Don’t have books to donate? No worries! Buy books from our curated wishlist online! These books are chosen to fill needed gaps in Prison Book Program’s bookshelves.
3. Donate online
Each package costs about $5 to mail, which means the 15,000 packages PBP sent in 2022 added up to a postage budget of $63k. Financial donations make that possible!
Donation bins are available at the following locations:
- Starbucks (Boston, near MGH main campus)
- 222 Cambridge St, Boston, MA 02114
- The Democracy Center (Cambridge)
- 45 Mt Auburn St, Cambridge, MA 02138
- Accessible at any time! Please complete this form ahead of time in order to be sent the door code.
- Charlestown Branch of the BPL (Charlestown)
- 179 Main St, Charlestown, MA 02129
- Reimagym (Medford)
- 215B Salem Street, Medford MA 02155
- Roxbury Branch of the BPL (Roxbury)
- 149 Dudley St, Roxbury, MA 02119
- Starbucks (Brookline, near BU)
- 874 Commonwealth Ave, Brookline, MA 02446
Please check the location’s hours online before planning a drop-off!
Book donation guidelines
- Paperback only
- Gently used or new
- Fiction, nonfiction, or blank notebooks
- Advanced reading or review copies
- Language learning and dictionaries (especially Spanish and ASL)
- Hobbies, including beginning drawing, coloring books, puzzle books, crochet
- Genre fiction, including horror, vampires, manga, thrillers, mysteries, fantasy, sci fi, westerns, comics
- Self help, including exercise and yoga, life skills, psychology, and addiction recovery
- Skill-building and career books, including trade skills, real estate, computers, financial literacy, business
- LGBT fiction and nonfiction
- Nonfiction including astrology, history, sports, music
- Blank notebooks or journals
- Spiral bound or hardback books
- Magazines
- Self-published books (unless specifically written for people in prison)
- Books in bad condition, including any water damage or lots of markings
- Old books that are yellow and brittle
- Outdated textbooks
- True crime
- Children’s picture books
How to Find Books in Your Community
Here are a few tips and tricks for finding low-cost and free books in local communities.
ARCs
Publishers send advance review or reader copies of new titles to news outlets and bookstores so they can promote and review forthcoming books. These ARC's cannot be resold, and they are often in excellent condition. Contact newspapers, news stations, and book outlets in your city about whether they have a supply of ARC's lying around.
Library Sales
Almost all public libraries in New England have a "Friends of" fundraising arm. Most of these groups earn extra money for their library by holding one or more book sales throughout the year. Near the end of the sale, you can often get good deals on bags or boxes of books. Some generous groups invite nonprofits to come at the end of the sale and take anything they want..
Social Media Groups
If your area has a neighbors helping neighbors or "buy nothing" group on social media, join it. Post that you are interested in paperback books. Set up alerts for the word "books" on online marketplaces like Craigslist. Avid readers can get emotionally attached to their books and want them to go to someone who will really appreciate them. Let the book lovers in your network know that you can give their books a good home.
Local Partners
Find a local partner to help you find books. Churches, fraternities, sororities, book clubs, and local service groups are great options. We have heard of local groups like this "adopting" a library in their local prison or jail and frequently running book drives to keep it stocked with good reading material.
