The Staff Senate Community Service and Engagement Committee is sponsoring a book drive to benefit the Prison Books Collective (PBC) starting Feb. 1, 2024 and running through March 28, 2024. PBC is a local, volunteer run, non-profit that provides books and magazines to individuals in prisons and jails in North Carolina and Alabama, free of charge. When you donate you make a difference in someone’s life inside.
PBC collects high-demand books in the following subject areas:
- Current, practical business guides (e.g. for starting small businesses)*
- Financial literacy*
- Legal advice and dictionaries*
- GED prep*
- Skill-building how-to guides*
- Westerns*
- Dictionaries (English and Spanish)
- General DIY (e.g. automotive, electrical, gardening, home repair, tiny houses)
- Practical self-help (e.g. mental health, overcoming addiction, anxiety)
- Introductory science and nature books
- Study Bibles
- LGBTQ fiction
- Black fiction (e.g. urban fiction)
- Black non-fiction (e.g. autobiographies)
- Indigenous studies
- Drawing guides
- Astrology and tarot
- Thrillers
*denotes subject areas that are particularly desirable
Collection Dates
February 1, 2024 – March 28, 2024
Collection Box Locations
- Brooks Hall (Lobby – 2nd Floor)
- Bureau of Mines (Dean Suite – 3rd Floor)
- Butler Communications Building (Lobby – 1st Floor)
- Center for Technology and Innovation (Break Room – 2nd Floor)
- CVM (Main Lobby Above Library)
- Holladay Hall (Break Room – Ground Floor)
- Holmes Hall (Break Room – 2nd Floor)
- McKimmon Center (Annex – 2nd Floor)
- SAS Hall (04110 and 4th Floor)
- Thomas Hall (1st Floor)
- Weisiger-Brown Facility (Front Lobby, 1st Floor)
- Wilson College of Textiles (Dean Suite or Room 3431 as a backup)
PBC accepts paperback books only. No hardcovers, spiral bound or books with writing, highlighting, or any other types of marking in them please. They also ask that you do not donate fiction, unless it falls within one of the subject areas listed above.
For more information on the Prison Book Collective visit their website at https://prisonbooks.info.