Thank you for donating books. Donated books can meet the needs of people incarcerated in prisons, our the Champaign County Jail, and County Youth Detention Center.
Prison Needs
Unfortunately, IDOC is tightening its restrictions on used books condition. As a result we can only ship books that are in very good condition.
We have been given permission to send hardcover books again to nearly all the IDOC prisons!
You should know that if your book donations
- do not meet the standards the prisons have set for content or condition
- are not what prisoners ask for enough to warrant our limited shelf space
- we already have enough to meet prisoner requests
- are too heavy for us to afford shipping
we will sell them at our spring and fall book sales to raise funds to ship those books that can go in. In this way, we are good stewards of all the books that you donate to us.
High demand topics by people incarcerated in prisons include:
- Recent English dictionaries (yes, the English language changes and prisoners do best with the most up to date possible)
- GED test prep books or adult education textbooks in math, reading comprehension, and basic writing
- financial literacy, understanding compound interest, etc.
- starting a business
- how to draw (everything from comic book characters to portraits)
- African-, Latin-, Native-American and LGBTQ+ biography and history
- basic nutrition, health & exercise
- guides to learning a trade (for example, house construction, plumbing, wiring, welding, car engine repair, car body work to name a few.)
- Learning Qu’ranic Arabic, Biblical Hebrew, and Spanish.
Please do not donate the following (it will save us the cost and trouble of recycling)
- encyclopedias
- Readers Digest condensed books
- Cliff notes
- pamphlets
- articles
- academic journals
- textbooks older than 5 years in subjects where that matters
- books in poor condition, e.g., moldy, dusty, poorly stored books
- spiral bound textbooks
- magazines. Only special issue National Geographics that have no advertising. (We ship by media mail which disallows that.)
County Jail Library needs
The Jail library can only accept paperbacks but they have looser condition restrictions. Many of the paperbacks that aren't in good enough condition as prisons require, are acceptable in our Jail library. The jail library also accepts magazines, which the Prison program does not.
High demand topics by people in our jail include:
- People, Ebony, National Geographic magazines
- Puzzle books – sudoku - word search – crossword, etc.
- Mystery - thrillers
- Everything listed above for prisons
County Youth Detention Center Library Needs
This library can only accept PAPERBACK books. It needs
- young adult or teen fiction
- young adult or teen non-fiction.
- Graphic novels are much appreciated.
LOCAL BOOK DROP SITES:
If you live in the Champaign / Urbana Illinois community please donate books at one of our conveniently located book drop sites. Typically our donation bins hold up to 150 books (please do not leave books on the floor in Lincoln Square Mall-- if these bins are full please leave them at the IMC donation boxes which can accommodate overflow).
To coordinate donations of large amounts of books (twelve boxes or more), or to plan a book drive at your place of work or house of worship, or social club, please use the contact form on our website to make arrangements.
1) Urbana Champaign Independent Media Center | 202 S. Broadway Ave, Urbana (in the old Urbana Post office)
Our donation bin is right inside the Independent Media Center's front door to the left.
2) Lincoln Square Mall | 300 S. Broadway Ave, Urbana
Two donation bins are located inside the Lincoln Square Mall in the corridor across from the Art Coop. Pease do not leave donations on the floor--even in boxes--because Mall security will remove them.
3) Parkland College | 2400 West Bradley Ave, Champaign
Book drop located at College Center, across from the library on the first floor.
If you live outside of our area
and would like to mail a donation to us, please contact us with the book titles you would like to donate to ensure they can be of use. Please do not mail large boxes, in lieu of a large box, consider making a financial donation similar to cost of shipping.
UC Books to Prisoners
Book Donation Processing
PO Box 515
Urbana IL 61803
