3 ms·

Goodwill will take and re-sell books. Just don't give them textbooks.

• sanderjd 8y ago
  > Just don't give them textbooks. Is this true for libraries too? I was really bummed awhile back when I gave my local library some very good CS canon type textbooks and never saw them go on the shelves alongside the current crop of "Python for Dummies" type stuff. Is there any way to help them separate the wheat from the chaff when you donate?
  • rtkwe 8y ago
    Really I'd trust your local librarians to know what would actually be useful to your local community. Alternatively it could have been sent to another library in the county system.
    • sanderjd 8y ago
      Yeah, that was my assumption as well. But upon reflection, I fear they don't have the expertise to tell the difference between quickly-obsolete texts and those that are more timeless. It can be bewildering even with expertise in the field, so I don't begrudge them the difficulty. But maybe you're correct that they have a better knowledge of what is useful to the local community, and perhaps decided these were too academic and sent them to a university library instead. But personally, I think it's a bummer that a curious kid won't see SICP on the computing shelf, rather than five or six books on ColdFusion and the like.