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.
The Friends of Brooks Free Library gratefully accept donations of gently used books. Your contributions help support library programs. Thank you for thinking of us and helping keep great books in circulation.
Donations are limited to twenty (20) books and should be in a manageable box or bags.
What we CAN take:
If your books match the following guidelines, we would 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 (all genres).
- Non-Fiction (history, biography, cooking, gardening, etc.).
- Children’s and Teen books.
- Large Print books.
- Books in like-new condition.
What we do NOT accept:
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 cannot accept:
- Books that have that musty garage/attic smell or cigarette smell.
- Books with torn pages or water damage.
- Dictionaries, encyclopedias, reference books.
- Travel books that are older than two (2) years.
- Books in a foreign language.
- Textbooks.
- Readers Digest collections.
- Magazines.
- Books with yellowing, dust, or spots on the sides of the pages, underlining, notes, or highlighting.
- Coffee table books, atlases, oversized 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.
For books that do not meet the above criteria, the Harwich Treasure Chest accepts books during business hours. For books that are in poor condition, the Transfer Station has book bins where they can be deposited.
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.