Winner of 2004 Award
of Excellence from the Marin Economic Commission for
"contributions to a vibrant and sustainable economy."
School Administrators: Unneeded texts, library books
or school furniture taking up storage space?
Teachers: Need more copies of certain texts? Supplementary
materials?
Non-Profits: Need any textbooks or library books?
Service Clubs: Want to send books overseas?
Libraries: Books you don't want anymore?
THE GLOBAL BOOK EXCHANGE
FINDS SECOND HOMES LOCALLY AND GLOBALLY FOR USED TEXTS AND LIBRARY
BOOKS. WORKING WITH MARIN COUNTY YOUTH, EDUCATORS AND SERVICE
CLUBS, WE PROMOTE EDUCATION AND LITERACY WORLDWIDE
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a great resource for schools, libraries
and non-profits
Tel: 415-883-2665
Fax: 415-435-7737
Marilyn Levin
Nemzer, Director
mnemzer@marin.org
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URGENT NOTE TO EVERYONE!!
WE ARE PREPARING TO RELOCATE AND NEED HELP PACKING UP OUR BOOKS! PLEASE COME HELP US
ON THURSDAYS OR SATURDAYS BETWEEN 1 - 4 p.m. HIGH SCHOOL STUDENTS WILL RECEIVE
CERTIFICATES AND CREDIT FOR COMMUNITY SERVICE HOURS.
The Book Exchange can no longer accept incoming books. Hopefully you can store your
books until we have a new facility.
For more information, please contact Marilyn Nemzer at booksforstudents@aol.com or
telephone Marilyn at 415-308-0939.
THIS NOTICE SUPERCEDES ANY CONFLICTING INFORMATION ON OTHER PAGES OF THIS WEBSITE.
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| About the
Global Book Exchange (GBX)
The GBX is a service of the California Study, Inc.
a 501 (c) (3) non-profit, tax ID#94-2860620.
Operated by volunteer founder
and director, Marilyn Nemzer, the Global Book Exchange collects
California's unneeded texts and library books and gives them to
representatives who come to our facility on behalf of schools,
community literacy projects, daycare, youth and community centers,
hospitals libraries, convalescent homes, drug treatment facilities,
and prisons throughout the state. Additionally, the GBX collaborates
with Rotary Clubs and other groups to ship these books to developing
countries worldwide. To date, students
in over 30 countries are using our books.
Begun in 1987, the Global Book Exchange has kept
close to two million perfectly good books from being dumped into landfills.
Our "Staff"
GBX has no paid staff. Administration and operation of the project is
volunteer. Most on-site help is from local teachers, from students of
neighboring middle and high schools and from the Marin County Juvenile
Probation Department. Major contributors of time and energy have been Marilyn
Nemzer, Kim Cappel, Judith Mayer, Kit Warne, Will Urbina, the McCahey family,
Kirk and Karrie Lindsay, Dru Davis, Bill Miller, and Al English.
Our Sponsors
The GBX depends on the generosity of others to keep this dream alive.
Greatest assistance has come from Ken Nemzer (major financial assistance),
the New Hamilton Partners and the City of Novato (the facility), the Ross
McDonald Company (shelving), Seagate Investment Company (first
home at Montecito in San Rafael), the California Conservation
Corps (labor), the Belvedere-Tiburon, Tiburon Sunset, and Central Marin Rotary
Clubs (financial assistance), and the Marin County Juvenile Probation
Department (ongoing project participation).
| A Few of Our Awards and Honors |
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Marin Economic Commission
Award of Excellence, for outstanding example
of Environmental Values for Marin County
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2004 |
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Marin Community
Foundation
Earth Day Every Day award
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1996 |
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Marin County
Office of Education
Marin County School Boards Association
Golden
Bell Award, special recognition |
1994 |
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Tiburon Peninsula
Chamber of Commerce
Merit Award |
1993 |
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Marin County
Commission on the Status of Women
Certificate of Recognition
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1993 |
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Del Norte County
Unified School District
Certificate of Appreciation for sponsoring school
programs that foster excellence in academics and
citizenship. |
1990 |
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National Environmental
Awards Council (Renew America)
Environment Achievement Award |
1990 |
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U.S. Environmental
Protection Agency, Region IX
Commendation for achievement in municipal
solid waste recycling |
1990 |
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Marin County
Volunteer of the Year
Marilyn
Nemzer, for The Book Exchange |
1988 |
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| Over 20 publications,
including the New York Times, have written praises of The
Book Exchange.
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If you live within reasonable driving distance, come in on a Thursday or a Saturday when the
facility is open (see "Open Hours," below). Be sure to call 415-883-2665 after 9am
on the day you plan to come to ascertain that we will be open that day. If you call
after 9am and you hear our "regular" 5-minute voicemail, that means we will definitely be
there that day during our regular open hours. Please do not leave a message asking someone
to call you back to confirm. If we plan to be closed you'll hear a different message which will
tell you within the first two sentences that we will be closed that day.
Although we are all volunteers, we must have funds to cover our costs (book-packing materials,
insurance, telephone, electricity, drinking water, portapotty, and maintenance/cleaning supplies).
We appreciate a donation commensurate with the number, type, and quality of the books you take.
($20/box is a reasonable guideline*). Adminstrators, simplify! Consider making a single annual donation
adequate to cover all of your teachers (for unlimited number of visits), especially if you represent a
"start-up" school -- either private or public charter -- and/or you plan to acquire a significant
quantity of books from The Book Exchange.
Download Handout for Teachers.
* Note: Teachers, tutors, and homeschoolers -- we can use
your help! Consider volunteering two hours of your time (i.e. in lieu of monetary donation) in
exchange for an hour of taking as many books as you need.
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If you live too far away to visit us, fax a copy of the book cover (if you have one) along with any
other info that might help identify the book (color, year of pub, etc.) and number of copies you'd
like, and thorough contact information. Fax to 415-435-7737. We'll contact you if we find what you
want. Cost is shipping charge X 2 plus $20.00.
Restrictions on taking books. Please note that as of 10/19/04 the following restrictions apply:
a. Teacher Editions (unless we have several of the same) will be for currently-teaching classroom teachers
only. Apologies to private tutors and homeschoolers.
b. Encyclopedia sets published after 1990 are for currently-teaching classroom teachers only.
Also we appreciate an extra donation for encyclopedia sets.
c. Please do not take multiple copies of dictionaries. See Marilyn if you need several.
d. One-of-a-kind readers ("library" books), especially for the youngest children, are in high
demand, as are books in Spanish. The amounts of these you may take may therefore be limited.
Currently-teaching public school classroom teachers receive highest priority.
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Deliver Your Books
Please! See what kind of books we take
before you deliver books to us.
Delivery times: Please try to arrange for delivery during our
open hours on Thursdays or Saturdays. If you absolutely cannot deliver
your books during our open hours please contact Marilyn Nemzer
(see contact info below).
Boxing your books: Your books should be packed in sturdy boxes,
not too big, please (someone -- often a 13 yr. old volunteer -- has to lift them)! Boxes should be lidded, and preferably
even sizes -- in other words, stackable. The best boxes are the ones in which copy
paper is usually packed. Otherwise standard 1.5 (or smaller) book boxes are OK. Please no
plastic bags. We will no longer accept huge/oversized boxes that are unreasonably heavy or
boxes that are falling apart!
Books we can acccept: Again, please see What we
accept... What we don't want...
Double-checking to be sure we'll be open: Be sure to call
415-883-2665 after 9am on the day you plan to come to ascertain that we will be open that day.
If you call after 9am and you hear our "regular" long voicemail, that means we will definitely
be there that day and you may deliver your books during our regular open hours. If we plan to be
closed you'll hear a different message which will tell you within the first two sentences that
we will be closed that day. Remember that we are all volunteers; we do the best we can to be
at The Book Exchange during our regular days and times, but there are times that we simply
cannot be there.
Mailing books to us: The only reliable way to send books to us if you
can't bring them yourself is by U.S. Post Office. UPS and FedEx don't work well because they insist on a signature
and we are not always on site. (They just keep leaving us little notices!) We are at the facility
only on Thursdays and Saturdays. The U.S. Post Office is the only mail service willing to
leave boxes on the loading dock next to our front door, which is exactly what we want!
Our shipping/mailing address:
The Book Exchange
821 State Access Rd.
Hamilton Field
Novato, CA 94949
NOTE: MUST WRITE CLEARLY ON EACH BOX —
"LEAVE OUTSIDE ON LOADING DOCK BY FRONT DOOR!!!!"
Again, please see What we accept... What we don't want...
Note: Due to lack of adequate funding for California
public schools, all drop-off fees have been discontinued. But if you can make a small
donation to help our project, we won't turn it down!
Open Hours
Our facility is usually open, on Thursdays from 1-4pm and
on Saturdays from Noon-3pm. We are usually closed Saturdays of weekend
holidays and some of the summer, but there is no set schedule. The only way
to know for sure if we'll be here is to call 415-883-2665 after 9:00 A.M.
of the Thursday or Saturday you plan to come. We don't
always answer the phone "in person," but if it's a Thursday
or a Saturday, and if you're hearing our regular voicemail message,
we'll be open at the hours normally scheduled for that day.
Volunteer Service
Students who are at least 14 years old and everyone else, please join our project to
help the environment and to help world literacy. We invite you to join us anytime we
are open. We can always use extra help, so just come on in during our open hours.
You do not need to make an appointment or get pre-approval. There is always plenty to do,
something for everyone. Teachers, we can use your help too!
If you can donate some time to our project, you can take whatever books you want when
you're here (two hours of help = one hour of taking books). Be sure to phone after 9am
on the Thursday or Saturday you plan to come in just to make sure we'll be open when you get here!
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Contact Info
To make arrangements for large deliveries, for details about
field trips or community service opportunities, and for all other
info and queries, call (415) 883-2665 (883-BOOK) and leave a message
for Marilyn. Or e-mail Marilyn at mnemzer@marin.org.
(Hint: e-mail will get you a much quicker response! I only listen to phone
messages Thursdays & Saturdays during our open hours.)
Directions
The Global Book Exchange. 821 State Access
Road, Novato, CA 94949. From Hwy. 101 North or South.
- Take Hwy 101 N or S to Hamilton Field Exit
- Get onto frontage road (Nave Dr.) east of freeway
- Turn east (rignt turn if coming from south, left if from north) off of Nave Dr.
onto State Access Rd. It's the first major turn north of Main Gate Rd.
- Take the first possible left off of State Access Rd. (You'll be turning just in front
of a yellow fire hydrant.)
- Now you're facing a warehouse. Turn left just in front of this warehouse, then go
straight (you'll be facing west).
- The Book Exchange is a long low beige building a few hundred yards ahead on the left.
You'll see a big sign that says "OPEN" (assuming we remember to put out the sign!).
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Shipping Books Overseas
The GBX usually has enough books on hand -- or can rather
quickly procure enough books -- to fill a shipping container with
texts or library books. Our priority is serving young people in
our own state first, but we usually always have plenty! (To
date we've sent books to schools and libraries in over 30 countries.)
Following is info that answers the most frequently asked questions
related to shipping books:
1) The group that wants to do the shipping makes its own arrangements.
GBX has no information about containers or shipping companies.
We just provide the books.
2) A 20 ft. container usually holds 450-500 boxes; about 25-30
books/box; about 40 lbs./box; about 15 - 20,000 books.
3) Our children's library books are always in demand, so please
don't plan on filling an entire container with them.
4) GBX staff reserves the right to retain certain books for "local use only",
so everything you see may not be available for sending
overseas (but most is).
5) School furniture is sometimes available to ship overseas.
Ask.
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| DON'T MAKE A TRIP ONLY TO FIND US CLOSED! Unless you have a special
appointment, ALWAYS call before coming to The Book Exchange. Even
though we plan to be open Saturdays from 12-3 pm and Thursdays
from 1-4 pm, there are exceptions. Phone 415-883-2665 after 9:00
am on the Thursday or Saturday you plan to come to MAKE SURE we'll be open!
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To Donate to The Book Exchange
As you know from reading this website, The Book Exchange is run on an all-volunteer basis. The
project has no regular funding, so we always appreciate donations from users and supporters.
If you would like to help sponsor our efforts, you can donate any amount of money using
PayPal (click on "Make a Donation" button below). If you prefer to use a Visa
or Mastercard, send an e-mail to Executive Director Marilyn Nemzer
(bx@marin.org) with your
relevant information. Checks may be mailed to Marilyn's office address: 664
Hilary Drive, Tiburon, CA, 94920. Please note that because we are all volunteers, all
dollars are used to support our project and do not enhance the personal income of any
individuals. Your donation is tax deductible: The Book Exchange is a service of The California
Study, Inc., a 501 (c) (3) nonprofit organization, Tax I. D. #94-2860620.
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The Global Book
Exchange
What we accept... What we have... What
we don't want...
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We accept all of the following books and usually have them
for you to take. Any of these that are paperback or softcover must be in truly perfect
to excellent condition.
- Textbooks: Science (all kinds, all levels), Math (all levels),
Social Studies, Language Arts, Literature, Reading, Drama,
Art, Music, Foreign Languages, Vocational Ed
- K-12 library books, fiction and non-fiction
- New, unused student workbooks
- Teacher education, resource books, and manuals
- National Geographic magazines
- Encyclopedias (published after 1988),
dictionaries and other reference books
- All levels / hardbacks only: Art, Biography, Cooking, Foreign Language,
Hobbies, How to fix or build things, Literature, Music, Nature,
Opera, Poetry, Science, Sports, Theatre
- Some school furniture, office furniture and equipment, PE/art/music
equipment.
We accept the following books for overseas
shipment (in addition to those listed
above), but you won't find them on our shelves. Any of these that are
paperback or softcover must be in truly perfect to excellent condition.
- University level textbooks in Medicine, Health,
Science, Nursing and Oceanography
- Readers' Digest condensed
- "Leisure-reading" (fiction or non-fiction) hardbacks, or paperbacks in truly perfect to
excellent condition, excluding topics as noted in first three bulleted items below.
We absolutely do not want any of
these:
- No religion, no TV, no movies, no travel, no almanacs
- No joke books, no military, no pornography or sexually explicit
novels
- No terror, no psycho or bloody axe-murderer stuff
- No oversized "coffee-table books"
- No folders or binders full of tests, lesson plans, student activities,
worksheets
- No encyclopedias that pre-date 1989.
- No encyclopedia annual yearbooks, even if published after 1989.
- No magazines except National Geographic
- No real estate. no law books
- No video tapes, no filmstrips, no A.V. equipment
- No computer equipment except by pre-arrangement with Marilyn
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