During these uncertain times, how can we help?
See below to access our COVID-19 Resource Hub, and to explore our growing directory of COVID-19-specific and virtual volunteering opportunities.
To sign up for this opportunity, please fill out our sign-up form on our website: https://accessbooksbayarea.org/volunteer-opportunity/donate-books/
With the pandemic still raging around the Bay Area, school libraries remain closed, and curbside service is rare in the Bay Area's poorest neighborhoods. Access Books Bay Area is getting books into the hands of the children who need them most, building their literacy skills, getting their attention off of a screen to read a book, through our little library book boxes initiatives, and direct book giveaways at meal distributions. But we need your help! We need more books to stock these efforts. If you have books to give, either from your personal collection, or if you are willing to purchase them, please read on for our book donation specifications.
WE DO NOT ACCEPT ADULT BOOKS OR BOOKS MORE THAN 5 YEARS OLD.
We accept the following types of book donations:
Examples of popular titles: Dog Man (and other Dav Pilkey), Elephant & Piggie (and other Mo Willems), Geronimo Stilton, Fly Guy, Dork Diaries, Pete the Cat, Splat the Cat, I Survived, Babymouse, Hilo, Narwhal, Dragonbreath, and more
New Books - of course we love receiving new books! You can purchase books in the following ways:
47 Octavia Street, San Francisco, CA 94102, US
Our mission is to level the literacy playing field for K-8 students living in poverty by providing high quality, high-interest, culturally relevant books, and a transformed school library space that invites students to spend time and read. We believe that books change lives, and that for children living in poverty, the school library is the best way to connect children with pleasure reading books. Studies have shown that reading for pleasure is one of the single greatest indicators of future academic success, yet the state of California provides no dedicated funding for school libraries, and many of the schools in the Bay Area have not funded their school libraries for decades, leading to out-dated collections and unattractive facilities. Our organization changes lives by making sure that the school library is an attractive place full of wonderful, interesting, recent, and culturally relevant books that will help them become lifelong readers.
We provide books to low-income schools where approximately 90 percent of students live at or below the poverty line. Most students at the schools we serve are children of color and children of immigrants. Our organization provides brand new, hardcover, high quality books to school libraries and gently used books to teachers for classroom libraries, as well as improving the library space by painting colorful, reading-based murals and providing new comfortable reading furniture.
We complete 2-3 library renovation projects each academic year, each taking place on a Saturday from 9am - 2pm. Volunteers from partner community service organizations collect the gently used books to be donated and provide volunteers for the project day.
We serve school around the bay area, although most of our work to date has been concentrated in the south bay and peninsula areas. We have renovated nine elementary and middle school libraries in high poverty areas to date, and have applications pending for four more, one of which will be renovated this spring.
We'll work with your schedule.
contact us for exact drop-off locationBay Area, CA 94303
January 8, 2021