Make A Donation

Financial Donations

We welcome community support helping us achieve our mission to promote full and equal access to information and ideas, the love of reading, the joy of learning, and engagement with the arts, sciences, and humanities.

The Board of Trustees of the Brooks Free Library oversees the Library’s overall direction and program. To learn about the Board’s philanthropic priorities and how you can make a difference with an outright gift or to leave the Library a gift via your estate plans, please see the Gift and Donation Policy and contact the Library’s Executive Assistant at 508-430-7562 ext. 6 or brooksaccounting@clamsnet.org.

The Friends of the Brooks Free Library welcomes gifts, either outright or via membership dues. This financial support provides the Friends the ability to supplement and enhance the Library’s already robust programming, including sponsoring engaging and educational resources. The Friends also contribute to capital projects, making it possible to refurbish internal and external spaces. To learn how you can make a gift to the Library via the Friends, please see their page or email them at FriendsofBrooksLibrary80@gmail.com.

All contributions are tax-deductible and may be made in honor or memory of a loved one.


Book Donations

Book donations are selectively accepted during Bookstore Hours by Friends Volunteers outside of the Bookstore Room.

Do not leave any donations in the bookdrop or on the library’s steps. Items left as donations on days when donations are not accepted will be recycled/thrown away. If you are looking for ways to give your book collection a new life, please consider recycling them at the local transfer station.

All proceeds from the sale of your donations support our Library programming.

Typically we can only accept donations of up to 20 items (or two small boxes or bags) at one time.

What we cannot take:

We wish we could take every book that comes through our door, but sadly we just don’t have the space. Over time, we’ve also discovered that some books don’t sell well in our bookstore. Here are the guidelines for what we can’t take: 

  • Dictionaries, encyclopedias, out-of-date travel guides, textbooks, condensed books– anything that may have been updated since it was published.
  • Books with yellowing, dust, or spots on the sides of the pages. Even if the discoloring is only slight, books in these conditions just don’t move in our bookstore.
  • Partially used coloring books.
  • Books that have that musty garage or attic smell.

What we can take:

If your books match the following guidelines we would very happily take them off your hands! The general rule of thumb is “A current popular title in like-new condition”, but here are the key things we look for: 

  • Fiction or Non-Fiction
  • In like-new or brand-new condition.
  • Paperbacks without excessive creasing.
  • Hardcovers with their paper jackets.
  • Gently used children’s books.

If you have any questions about donating materials to the library, please contact us at 508.430.7562 ext. 1 and speak with a librarian.

If you are a local author and would like to donate a copy of your work, take a look at our special Local Author Collection.


Other Donations

Please see our Gift and Donation Policy and contact the library before bringing in any other items to donate. Please note that any unattended items that do not follow this policy are subject to discard.