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The Book Place Donation Guidelines

Friends of Marin County Free Library

We’re accepting donations on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays ONLY. Bring books BEHIND the store in our parking lot. Enter off 7th Street, near corner of Grant Avenue.  

Map to Book Place

1608 Grant Ave, Novato

Hours:

Tuesday - Saturday

10 am to 4  pm

We gratefully accept gently-used books, DVDs, CDs, puzzles, and sheet music.  Unacceptable materials may be refused based on condition or if we are overloaded in a particular category. Our volunteer labor focuses on re-sellable items to fund critical library programs and needs. We are not a recycling center, but an outlet to sell good quality items at great prices.

 

  • Please call ahead (415.209.0212) if you have more than 3 boxes to ensure we have room for your donation.  If we cannot take the whole donation at once, we might accept a few bags or boxes at a time. Please state #boxes/bags in your message. Our back room is limited, so we may decline some items for lack of storage. PLEASE call first so we do not disappoint you if we are unable to accept.

  • Please do NOT leave donations outside the doors when we are closed.  The weather may damage your donation, resulting in disposal of the entire bag/box.

  • We must limit the amount of CD/DVD to one box of either item.

  • We discourage donations of boxes by ONE author - we don’t have the space for all of it.

  • We generally cannot use books from professionals retiring/closing their offices.

 

We cannot accept:

  • Books that are worn, torn, chewed, underlined or annotated; have yellowed pages, mold or smell of cigarettes/cigars; water-damaged, stained items; those without dust jackets; cookbooks that are spiral-bound or in ring binders

  • Textbooks and manuals

  • National Geographic magazines

  • Popular fiction from the 70’s-80’s that are worn or no longer popular

  • Magazines more than TWO years old (fashion/style more than ONE year old)

  • Time-Life, Harvard Classics, and Will Durant sets, or any incomplete sets

  • Oversized “coffee table” books, except Art and Photography or any UNIQUE topic

  • Encyclopedia sets unless pre-1940; must be complete

  • Readers’ Digest Condensed books

  • Travel guides, computer books/software, business, dictionaries/thesaurus, science, psychology, self-help, or medical/health books more than FIVE years old

  • Home decorating more than TWO years old

  • Gardening books more than TEN years old

  • Vinyl records/music on cassette, instructional material CD/cassettes (business, real estate, or self-help seminar materials)

  • Audiobooks with missing CDs

  • Home-recorded music or movies

  • Greeting cards, stationery, and board games

  • VHS tapes of any type

  • Children’s classroom textbooks/teacher guides, etc.

 

We work very hard to offer higher-quality materials for purchase. Therefore, if your  donation includes any of the above, please consider recycling in your home’s blue bin, or taking them to a recycling center.

THANK YOU!!

 

July 2022

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