Where to Donate Old Textbooks in Albuquerque

I accept college textbooks from every institution, in every subject, in any condition. You do not need to sort them, clean them, or look anything up first. That is my job. When you bring in a box of UNM textbooks from your chemistry, biology, and English courses, every one gets sorted individually. The organic chemistry text that is still in its current edition and in solid physical shape gets listed for resale. The Norton Anthology of English Literature from eight editions ago gets routed to a Little Free Library or, if it is falling apart, to the recycler. You do not need to make these decisions yourself.

For UNM students specifically: finals week is when the drop box fills fastest. You don't need to work out which books a buyback site will take or whether your edition is current. Bring the whole stack, access-code editions, lab manuals and custom readers included, and I'll sort it.

CNM students are in a similar position. The nursing, dental hygiene, and trades programs at CNM generate technical textbooks that the next class of students actively looks for, because the programs are large and the required texts are expensive new. CNM's Main Campus near University and Coal, the Westside Campus, the South Valley Campus — I pick up from any of them, or you can use the 24/7 drop box on Edith Blvd. For more about donating CNM textbooks specifically, see the CNM textbook donation page.

New Mexico Highlands University runs programs in education, social work, and business that cycle through textbooks regularly. NMSU students in Las Cruces who are moving to or through Albuquerque can drop off here rather than shipping. Students and faculty from other New Mexico colleges can use the 24/7 drop box when they are in town, or mail textbooks to me by Media Mail. For campus-specific guides, see the Santa Fe university textbook donation page.

Medical and nursing textbooks are some of the most useful books I receive, because students can't substitute a different text when their program requires a specific one, and the next cohort goes looking for used copies.

At the UNM Health Sciences Center, the School of Medicine, the College of Nursing, the College of Pharmacy, the physical therapy program, the physician assistant program — each of these leaves students with a shelf of texts once the coursework is done. Board prep books after Step 1, a BSN shelf of Brunner and Suddarth, Porth's Pathophysiology and a Davis Drug Guide: bring the whole shelf, any edition, and I sort it.

CNM's nursing and allied health programs are another major source: fundamentals of nursing, medical-surgical nursing, pharmacology, maternal-newborn and psychiatric nursing texts, plus dental hygiene, radiologic technology and respiratory therapy books. Current or long outdated, they're all welcome.

Law textbooks turn over quickly. Casebooks used in first-year law school courses — contracts, torts, civil procedure, constitutional law, criminal law — change editions often, and statutory supplements and bar prep materials from companies like Barbri, Kaplan, and Themis are tied to a single exam cycle. I accept all of it regardless of edition or condition. For a deeper discussion, the medical and nursing textbook donation page has additional detail.

If you have more than a handful of textbooks — or if getting to the Edith Blvd location is inconvenient — I offer free pickup across the Albuquerque metro: Albuquerque, Rio Rancho, Corrales, Bernalillo and Placitas. Valencia County (Los Lunas, Belen), the East Mountains (Tijeras, Cedar Crest, Sandia Park, Edgewood), Madrid and Cerrillos, Algodones and the Cuba area are extension routes, scheduled around the longer runs. If you are on the edge and unsure, text me.

Scheduling a pickup is simple. Call or text 505-250-3804. tell me roughly how many textbooks you have and where you are located. I will find a time that works. I do the loading — you do not need to carry boxes to the curb unless you want to. If the textbooks are in a garage, an office, a storage unit, or a classroom, I come to wherever they are.

There is no minimum quantity for free pickup: one box of nursing texts or a whole department book room gets the same visit. The free pickup scheduling page has more detail on how the process works, including what to expect on the day of pickup.

For larger donations — entire department libraries, school storage rooms, estate cleanouts involving a home office full of textbooks — the process is the same, it just takes a bit longer on my end. I bring the truck, the labor, and the boxes if you need them. You point me to the books and I handle the rest.

Here's what goes into the sort on my end. None of it is homework for you: I accept textbooks whatever their edition or condition. Even a textbook forty years out of date has a path forward here — it goes back to a reader if it can, and to the paper recycler if it can't. No book goes to the landfill.

What I look at: the edition, whether a used access code matters for that course, and structural condition. Highlighting, margin notes and sticky-note residue are normal and fine. Broken spines, mold and missing pages send a book to paper recycling instead of back to a reader. None of this is homework for you; bring the whole stack.

If you are a professor, instructor, or department administrator reading this, this section addresses your situation directly, because academic textbook accumulation is a specific problem with a specific solution.

Faculty offices accumulate textbooks in a way that is different from student collections. Publishers send unsolicited examination copies throughout the year, hoping you will adopt their text for your course. Over a career spanning decades, these pile up. Retiring faculty sometimes have entire walls of textbooks that no longer reflect their current teaching but that they have never had a convenient way to remove. Department offices inherit books from faculty who have left, and nobody wants to be the person who throws away a colleague's books.

I handle all of this. A department cleanout at UNM or CNM typically works like this: you call or text me, tell me roughly what you have (number of boxes, shelf feet, or just a general sense of volume), and I schedule the pickup on my route. I arrive with boxes if you need them, pack everything, load it, and haul it to the warehouse. No disruption to the department, no sorting required on your end, no judgment about what is current and what is not. Set aside anything you want to keep; everything else goes with me.

For department-level cleanouts involving multiple offices or a storage room, I am happy to coordinate timing with your administrative staff. I can work during business hours or off-hours, depending on what the department prefers. There is no cost to the department — the free pickup covers this.

Some faculty members ask whether their textbooks will be treated with care. The honest answer is that they are treated the way everything is: each one is sorted individually, routed to the best available destination, and nothing with a second life gets thrown away. An outdated reference text goes back to a reader if one can use it and to the paper recycler if not, never to a dumpster.