Simply Textbook The Academic Book Collector collects your unwanted academic books and finds them a new home â NEVER in landfill đđâťď¸
Simply Textbook collects unwanted academic books FREE of charge from staff at Universities in England đ´ó §ó ˘ó Ľó Žó §ó ż and Wales đ´ó §ó ˘ó ˇó Źó łó ż
Not university staff? No problem! Request an easy, straightforward collection from your residential or commercial addresses in England and Wales for just ÂŁ40. No hassles trying to sell your books yourself, fruitlessly scanning barcodes, or being turned down by charity shops!
Simply Textbook collects academic books, plus indeed ANY published books with ISBN across the entire spectrum of subjects and genres, working tirelessly to find them a new home
No picking and choosing takes place – every ISBN book presented for collection will be collected
Simply Textbook is not a charity, but donates regularly to charity
Strict zero-landfill policy operated at all times
University staff?
Collections are offered FREE of charge to serving and recently retired staff at any university in England đ´ó §ó ˘ó Ľó Žó §ó ż and Wales đ´ó §ó ˘ó ˇó Źó łó ż
Just select the books that you no longer wish to keep, and let Simply Textbook take care of the rest. Easy and uncomplicated process, with collections directly from your office.
No quantity too high or too low. For quantities on the higher side (1500+), multiple trips will be required. For lower quantities, you may be asked to wait a little longer for the collection while numbers are increased by other means.
If Simply Textbook has a collection date coming up at your university, you can alternatively request a collection from your home address free of charge if you live nearby and within easy reach. This has proved very helpful for staff working from home since the pandemic.
If you live further afield, and/or you have specific timing requirements, and/or there is any other logistical complexity in collecting from your location, a minimum charge of ÂŁ25 applies.
Recently retired is within the last 2 years.
Not university staff?
If you are not university staff, collections can also be arranged from any residential or commercial address in England and Wales. A standard fee of ÂŁ40 (payable in advance) applies per visit regardless of location and quantity of books.
Collections are always subject to Simply Textbook’s schedule, availability in your area, and the quantity of books you have for collection.
You may alternatively pay to ship the books over by a courier such as DPD, Evri or Royal Mail. Please get in touch for further details.
Please note, Simply Textbook is unable to provide any drop-off facilities, either at its base in Swindon, or at any university that you are not personally connected with.
If you can leave the books boxed or bagged outside your property without risk of them getting wet, it is not a requirement for you to be present at the time of the collection.
What can be collected? đ
ANY published books with ISBN. That’s academic and non-academic; fiction and non-fiction; ANY subject, genre, language, age*, condition*. If it has an ISBN, Simply Textbook collects it.
Please note – Simply Textbook is unable to do anything productive with books that pre-date ISBN – that’s roughly circa 1968.
Original published media CDs, DVDs and games discs are also ok for collection.
Not suitable for collection â
No journals, periodicals, magazines, booklets, pamphlets, brochures, catalogues, manuals, folders, reports, dissertations, conference proceedings, loose papers, photocopied materials, or any other non-ISBN published book materials.
No large quantities of books pre-dating ISBN or items without ISBN. This includes books with just a SBN reference, or just a Library of Congress reference.
*All books MUST have ISBN, usually displayed on the rear cover, preferably with a barcode.
All books must be in saleable condition – the condition you would expect if you purchased yourself a second hand book online or from a bookshop or charity shop. No missing/torn pages, no food stains, no strong odours, no water damage, no excessive annotations including underlining and highlighting.
Please arrange for any such non-suitable items to be recycled via your own normal recycling procedure in your location.
Simply Textbook is very conscious of its environmental and sustainability obligations and responsibilities. It is actually a really bad idea for Simply Textbook to add potentially hundreds of miles to a book’s journey to the recycling centre if that could have been averted.
Please do not be offended if any items are rejected if they do not meet the collection criteria.
SCOTLAND đ´ó §ó ˘ó łó Łó ´ó ż Collections are sadly no longer offered in Scotland due to travel time, distance and cost.
SCHOOLS & COLLEGES â – School and college requests are NOT currently being accepted. Simply Textbook is unable to handle and store large quantities of duplicate titles, in generally poorer states of condition.
What happens to the books after they’ve been collected?
The books are brought back to Swindon (Wilts), and then the really hard work begins.
It’s a painstaking process, EVERY book is individually inspected, checking across a whole range of criteria including condition, age, relevance, demand, market price, etc. The optimum path for each book is then established, typically involving sale by various means, charitable donation or recycling (last resort option).
Charity
Simply Textbook is NOT a registered charity, and does not make any claim to the contrary. Charitable donation is however very much part of its ethos. Simply Textbook gives as generously as manageable to charity, both in terms of good quality books, and cash donations.
Simply Textbook supports Oxfam by way of book donations, helping to fund its vital aid work around the world; and Coram Beanstalk by way of cash donations. This is a brilliant UK charity that provides one to one support to children and young people in the UK who struggle most with their reading and writing.
Social Media
Please Follow Simply Textbook on Facebook! This is the best way to reliably keep up to date with all the latest news, collection dates and activities. Simply Textbook has a presence on other platforms, but these are rarely actively monitored.