Where can I donate books at end of semester as a UNM student?

UNM end-of-semester move-out is a high-volume window for NMLP. Students cleaning out dorms, apartments, and Greek houses often have stacks of books the campus bookstore won't buy back (older editions, electives that don't trade in, foreign-language texts, supplementary readings, reference books).

NMLP picks up at:

• Hokona Hall, Coronado Hall, Laguna-DeVargas Hall, Lobo Village, Casas del Rio, Lobo Rainforest
• Off-campus apartments around UNM (Nob Hill, Sycamore, EDo, Silver Hill, Princeton)
• Greek houses on Mesa Vista and Sigma Chi Road
• Graduate-student housing along Yale and Lomas
• Faculty offices in Mitchell Hall, Dane Smith, Humanities, Social Sciences, the Castetter Hall complex (end-of-semester cleanouts and faculty retirements)

Recommended sequence for students with end-of-semester books (detailed in our end-of-semester textbook guide):

1. Try UNM Bookstore buyback first for required-text current editions (cash on the spot)
2. Try Amazon trade-in for accepted titles (mail-in)
3. NMLP for everything else — declined buybacks, electives, supplementary readings, foreign-language texts, art history textbooks, anything water-damaged or marked up

Free pickup, or drop off any time at the 24/7 box. Call or text 702-496-4214. See UNM Textbook Donation Pickup. For a complete walkthrough of donating textbooks in Albuquerque, read our definitive textbook donation guide.

Organizing a hall or chapter collection

If you are an RA or floor coordinator, the mechanics are simple: pick a lobby or common-room spot, tell residents during the last week of classes, and text me when the pile is done. I bring boxes if the hall needs them and clear everything in one trip. The volume surprises people — a single building has produced three full truckloads in one move-out week, because twenty or thirty rooms per floor each hold a semester or two of books.

Greek houses accumulate differently: members cycle through every four years and books pile up in study rooms, closets, and basements until someone finally clears the chapter house. One contact person — usually the house manager or philanthropy chair — consolidates the books in one area, and some chapters count the organizing toward service hours. Study groups can do the same on a small scale: six people from one organic chemistry section can easily hold a dozen copies of the same text, lab manual, and solutions guide. One consolidated pickup beats five separate car trips.

Tight timelines: flights, leases, and parents with full cars

International students get the most compressed version of this problem — the gap between the last final and the flight home can be 48 hours, and shipping books overseas costs more than the books are worth. During finals weeks I run UNM-area routes often, so text early with your timeline and I'll do my best to get to you before your flight; December adds the holiday-travel squeeze, so the sooner you reach out the better. Media Mail runs twenty to forty dollars per box even domestically, which settles the ship-or-donate question for most stacks.

Parents helping with move-out: when the car is already loaded and the books are the thing that will not fit, text me the address and a rough count — porch pickup works, meaning you leave the boxes with a note and I collect after you have driven off. Headed north out of town on I-25, the drop box is on your way. And the roommate-left-them-behind stack: message them, give it a couple of days, then donate without guilt.