Selling & Donating Books in Los Alamos, New Mexico
Sell or Donate Your Books in Los Alamos
Los Alamos has the most concentrated collection of scientific personal libraries in New Mexico. Three generations of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, and engineers have built bookshelves on the Hill that hold real value. This is an honest guide to what's genuinely collectible on the Hill, and how to get a whole LANL-era library donated from 100 miles away. A note up front: the New Mexico Literacy Project pickup service is Albuquerque-metro only, so I don't drive to Los Alamos — but you don't need to know what you have, and NMLP's free 24/7 drop-off is there for anyone heading down to Albuquerque, with donor-paid mail-in for everyone else.
Free 24/7 book drop-off in Albuquerque. Mail-in from the Hill. Every box sorted by hand.
NMLP doesn't pick up in Los Alamos — but planning help by text is free, and so is the drop-off in Albuquerque. No obligations.
Last verified October 2026 · Original research by Josh Eldred
Why Los Alamos Has the Most Valuable Scientific Libraries in New Mexico
I have been picking up and evaluating books around the Albuquerque metro for years, and no community produces personal libraries like Los Alamos. It is not close. The reason is straightforward: Los Alamos National Laboratory has been the intellectual center of the American nuclear and physics establishment since 1943, and the town that grew up around it reflects that history in every household bookshelf I walk past.
The numbers tell part of the story. Los Alamos County has one of the highest concentrations of PhDs per capita of any community in the United States. Three generations of physicists, chemists, mathematicians, computer scientists, and engineers have raised families on the Hill, and they brought their professional libraries home with them. When a LANL scientist retires after 30 or 40 years, the personal library they have built is not a casual collection of popular paperbacks. It is a working reference library that spans their entire career, supplemented by decades of general reading from someone with an unusually high level of education and intellectual curiosity.
Then there is the Manhattan Project angle. Los Alamos was the secret city where the atomic bomb was built, and the historical literature around that project is enormous and actively collected. Oppenheimer, Groves, Teller, Bethe, Fermi, Feynman — the names associated with Los Alamos read like a who's who of twentieth-century physics. First editions of major Manhattan Project histories, memoirs by participants, and publications from the Los Alamos Historical Society have a dedicated collector base that has only grown in recent years. Families in Los Alamos often own this material because they lived the history. Their parents or grandparents were there. The books on the shelf are not just interesting reads — they are artifacts of a community's lived experience.
The computing history matters too. LANL was a pioneer in scientific computing. The Lab used some of the earliest electronic computers for weapons calculations, and the community of computer scientists who worked there accumulated libraries that trace the entire history of the discipline. Early computing texts, algorithm manuals, and programming language references from the 1950s through 1970s can carry surprising value in the academic resale market.
Beyond the science, Los Alamos residents are voracious general readers. The Mesa Public Library is consistently ranked among the best public libraries in New Mexico, which tells you something about the reading culture on the Hill. The personal libraries I encounter in Los Alamos are not just technical — they include literary fiction, history, philosophy, biography, and the full range of serious nonfiction. When you combine a physicist's technical library with 40 years of discriminating general reading, the result is a collection that deserves to be sorted one volume at a time, not tipped into a dumpster.
That is why Los Alamos collections deserve a careful eye — and why every box that reaches my warehouse from the Hill is sorted by hand, with its rare pieces researched before they're listed, even though NMLP's pickup truck stays in the Albuquerque metro.
What Los Alamos Collections Hold
Here are the categories I see most often from Los Alamos households and what makes each one collectible. You don't need to sort any of it first; that happens at the warehouse.
Physics and Mathematics Libraries
This is the core of most Los Alamos collections, and it is where the most significant individual values tend to hide. Graduate-level physics textbooks from major publishers carry modest but consistent resale value. Where things get interesting is with older editions, specialized monographs, and landmark texts. Early printings of foundational works in quantum mechanics, nuclear physics, and mathematical physics are actively collected by universities, research libraries, and private collectors. The difference between a common later printing and a valuable first edition is not always obvious to a non-specialist — which is why I check the copyright page of every physics monograph that comes through the warehouse, so you don't need to know which printing you have before you donate.
Manhattan Project and Nuclear History
The Manhattan Project history category is enormous and growing. First editions of the major histories — the landmark works that defined public understanding of the bomb project — are actively collected and can reach well into four figures for the right title in good condition. But it is not just the famous titles. Los Alamos Historical Society publications from the early decades, declassified histories that were printed in small quantities, memoirs by lesser-known participants, and photographic records of the project era all have collector markets. The recent surge of interest following the Oppenheimer film pushed values higher across the entire category, and the market has not retreated. If you have a shelf of Manhattan Project books in a Los Alamos home, keep them boxed together when they come down the hill — each one is researched at the warehouse before it's listed.
Computing and Computer Science
Los Alamos has been at the frontier of scientific computing since the ENIAC era. The personal libraries of LANL computer scientists can contain early programming manuals, algorithm textbooks from the 1950s and 1960s, and technical references for computing systems that no longer exist. These items have a dedicated collector market among computer history enthusiasts and academic libraries building archival collections. More recent computer science textbooks — from the 1990s onward — carry modest resale value, but the older material can reach the mid three figures for the right titles.
Astronomy and Space Science
The connection between Los Alamos and the broader space science community runs deep. LANL scientists have contributed to planetary science, astrophysics, and space instrumentation for decades. The Bradbury Science Museum reflects this heritage, and the personal libraries I see in Los Alamos often include substantial astronomy and space science sections. Vintage star atlases, early space exploration histories, and specialized astrophysics monographs all have resale markets. Complete runs of Sky & Telescope or similar publications from early decades carry modest but real value as well.
Chemistry and Materials Science
The Lab's work in chemistry and materials science has generated another layer of valuable personal libraries on the Hill. Reference works on radiochemistry, nuclear chemistry, metallurgy, and explosives chemistry from the mid-twentieth century occupy a narrow but active resale niche. More broadly, chemistry textbooks and reference works from major academic publishers have steady demand in the used academic book market. I know which editions and imprints carry value and which have been superseded.
General Academic Libraries from Retiring Scientists
Not every book in a LANL retiree's library is a technical monograph. Scientists read widely, and the general-interest sections of Los Alamos personal libraries tend to be unusually well curated. I regularly find high-quality literary fiction, serious history, biography, philosophy, and current affairs titles shelved alongside the physics and math. These books may not carry the individual values of the technical material, but they move consistently through my resale channels and they contribute meaningfully to the overall value of a collection.
Literary Fiction and Humanities
Los Alamos has a thriving literary culture that extends well beyond the sciences. The community supports active book clubs, author events, and a reading culture that rivals towns many times its size. The personal libraries reflect it. I see first editions of significant literary fiction, poetry collections, and humanities scholarship in Los Alamos homes with regularity. Signed copies are particularly common — Los Alamos has hosted visiting authors and lecturers for decades through the Lab's public lecture series and community events, and those signed books often end up on private shelves.
Children's Science and Education Books
Los Alamos families tend to invest heavily in children's education, and the children's book collections I see reflect that. Science experiment kits, math enrichment books, and high-quality children's nonfiction are common. While most children's books carry modest individual value, certain vintage science education titles from the 1950s through 1970s — the golden age of children's science publishing — have active collector markets. They get the same careful look at the warehouse as the physics shelf.
Signed Copies from Conference Circuits and Author Visits
LANL scientists attend conferences around the world, and they come home with signed books. Nobel laureates, Fields medalists, and leading researchers in every scientific discipline have passed through Los Alamos over the decades, and many of them signed copies of their works for colleagues. These signed scientific texts occupy a niche that most used book buyers do not understand — but I do. A signed first edition of a landmark physics text is not the same as a used textbook, and it doesn't get treated like one: inscribed copies are pulled at the warehouse and researched before they're listed. If an inscription is to a family member and means something to you, keep that book; otherwise, you don't need to know whose signature is on a flyleaf before you donate it.
You Don't Need to Know What's on the Shelves
Box it all up — the textbooks, the proceedings, the Oppenheimer shelf — and bring it to the free 24/7 drop box in Albuquerque or mail it in. I sort every box by hand. NMLP doesn't pick up in Los Alamos, but I'm glad to help you plan the trip or a mail-in shipment by text.
You don't need to identify a single printing first.
How It Works: Donating Books from Los Alamos
Los Alamos is about 100 miles from my Albuquerque warehouse, and NMLP's pickup service is metro-only, so I don't drive to the Hill. But you don't need me on-site to donate a Hill library well. Here is how Los Alamos families get their books to my warehouse — by the drop box or by mail — and what happens once they arrive.
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Call or Text 505-250-3804
Tell me what you have. A rough description is plenty — I do not need a catalog. Something like "My father retired from LANL, he passed last year, and there are maybe a thousand books in the house, mostly science and history" gives me exactly what I need to start pointing you in the right direction. If you can text a few photos of the shelves, even better.
2
Describe Your Collection
I will ask a few questions — what subjects, roughly how many books, what condition, and whether there is anything you know to be particularly old, rare, or signed. For Los Alamos collections, I also ask about the owner's field of work at the Lab, because that helps me anticipate what kind of technical material is likely on the shelves and how best to pack it for the trip.
3
Plan the Trip by Text
Instead of driving to Los Alamos, I work by text. Text me a rough count of the boxes, and I'll help you plan the drop-box trip or a mail-in shipment. You don't need to know which editions or printings you have — every book is sorted by hand at the warehouse. There is no charge for this, no obligation, and nothing has to be pulled out before the rest is donated.
4
Keep What Matters, Box the Rest
Set aside the books that mean something to the family — a parent's own dissertation, an inscribed copy from a Lab colleague — and box everything else as it comes off the shelves. You don't have to sort by subject or condition. The triage happens at my warehouse, where I spot the first editions, pull the limited-run conference proceedings, and read condition book by book.
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What Happens to the Standout Pieces
I don't buy books — that's not what this is. Whatever you decide to keep stays with you. Exceptional items — rare first editions of landmark physics texts, important Manhattan Project material, signed copies from notable scientists — are welcome with the ordinary readable books at the free 24/7 drop box in Albuquerque or by donor-paid mail-in, where each one is researched before it's listed.
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Donate the Rest — Locally or in Albuquerque
Once you've set aside the books you're keeping, the rest still deserves a good home. In Los Alamos, the Mesa Public Library Friends book sale takes general-interest donations. Anything you would rather route to NMLP — where readable books get redistributed and damaged ones are paper-recycled, never landfilled — can be dropped free, any condition, at the 24/7 bin at 5445 Edith Blvd NE in Albuquerque whenever you're heading down. NMLP does not collect books in Los Alamos, so plan the donation drop-off around a trip you're already making.
Los Alamos Neighborhoods and What Their Libraries Hold
NMLP doesn't run pickups anywhere in Los Alamos County — the truck stays in the Albuquerque metro. But the character of a collection often tracks the neighborhood, so here's what I've learned about the libraries across the county, wherever you're clearing one.
The Townsite (The Original Hill)
The historic core of Los Alamos, where many of the original Manhattan Project-era buildings stood. Homes here belong to some of the longest-tenured Lab families, and the personal libraries reflect decades — sometimes multiple generations — of scientific work and serious reading. These are the collections where I most often find early Manhattan Project material alongside deep technical libraries.
White Rock
The residential community south of the townsite, overlooking the Rio Grande. White Rock grew rapidly as LANL expanded through the latter half of the twentieth century. Many Lab families raised children here and built substantial home libraries over 30 or 40 years. The White Rock collections I've seen are every bit as deep as those on the mesa — same caliber of scientists, same depth of reading.
Pajarito Acres
A smaller residential area near the Lab with a tight-knit community of longtime LANL families. Libraries here tend to be concentrated and high quality — the owners often curated their collections carefully over long careers. Box a Pajarito Acres collection for the Albuquerque drop box or the mail; you don't need to know what's there first.
North Community and Barranca Mesa
The northern residential areas of Los Alamos proper, including the neighborhoods around the golf course and the upper mesa communities. Many of the Lab's senior scientists and division leaders have lived in these neighborhoods, and the libraries I encounter here frequently include signed copies, presentation volumes, and conference proceedings from leadership-level participation in the national research community.
South Community and Western Area
The southern and western residential neighborhoods of the townsite. These areas house a mix of career Lab employees and newer arrivals. The libraries I see here range from deep multi-decade technical collections to more focused collections built around specific scientific disciplines or personal interests.
Bandelier Area and the Jemez Mountains Corridor
Some LANL retirees have settled into homes along the corridor between Los Alamos and Bandelier National Monument, or deeper into the Jemez Mountains. Wherever the books are, the route is the same: box them for the Albuquerque drop box or the mail, and text me if you want help planning the trip.
The Espanola Corridor
Many LANL employees and retirees live in the communities between Los Alamos and Espanola — including along the highway through Pojoaque and the surrounding valleys. These households often hold the same caliber of scientific library as the Hill itself. If you're a LANL commuter household in the Espanola area clearing shelves, the same options apply: the free Edith Blvd drop box on your next Albuquerque run, or mail-in from home.
Have a Collection to Discuss?
I am happy to talk through a Los Alamos library — what the Friends sale takes, how to pack proceedings and bound journals for the drive down, or how mail-in works from the Hill. No pressure, no obligation. Just call.
The LANL Retiree Library: The Most Common Los Alamos Scenario
The scenario I see most often in Los Alamos goes something like this: a scientist retires from the Lab after 30 or 40 years. Maybe they are downsizing from the family home to something smaller. Maybe a family member has passed and the children are clearing the house. Maybe they are moving to assisted living and need the shelves emptied. Whatever the trigger, the result is the same — a house full of books that nobody knows how to deal with.
The typical LANL retiree library is a mix of several distinct layers that have accumulated over a career. The first layer is the technical reference library: the physics, mathematics, chemistry, or engineering texts that supported their daily work. These range from graduate textbooks to highly specialized monographs, conference proceedings, and technical reports. The second layer is the Manhattan Project and Los Alamos history collection — because everyone who lives on the Hill eventually becomes a student of the town's extraordinary story. You will find the major histories, the memoirs, the Los Alamos Historical Society publications, and often some genuinely obscure material that the owner picked up over decades of local living.
The third layer is the general reading collection, and this is where Los Alamos libraries consistently surprise me. Scientists at the Lab are not narrow specialists who only read in their field. They are unusually well-read people who tend to collect literary fiction, serious nonfiction, biography, philosophy, and current affairs with real discrimination. The general reading shelves in a LANL retiree's home are often better curated than what I see in the average university professor's house.
The fourth layer — and this is the one that families most often miss — is the conference material and signed copies. A career LANL scientist attended hundreds of conferences, symposia, and lectures over the decades. They came home with proceedings, with signed copies of colleagues' books, with presentation volumes, and with occasional items of real historical significance. These books look unremarkable on the shelf. They are often slim volumes with institutional covers. But a signed copy of a conference proceedings that contains a landmark paper can be worth more than everything else on the shelf combined.
The challenge for families is this: these books look like textbooks. And some of them are just textbooks — common editions with modest resale value. But some of them are genuinely valuable first editions, limited printings, or signed copies that deserve individual attention. You cannot tell the difference without expertise, and you shouldn't have to — that sorting is my job once the boxes reach the warehouse. Just don't let anyone haul this material to the recycling bin; bring it to the drop box or mail it in, and every volume gets a look.
Manhattan Project Collections: The Los Alamos History Angle
Los Alamos is the Manhattan Project. No other community in the country has the same concentration of material related to the bomb project, and no other community has the same personal connection to the history. The families I work with in Los Alamos are not collectors who bought these books at auction — they are the descendants and neighbors of the people who made this history. The books on their shelves were often acquired firsthand, inscribed by the authors, or published locally in small editions that never reached wide distribution.
The major Manhattan Project histories are well known and actively collected. First editions of the foundational narratives about the bomb project, the key biographies of Oppenheimer and other principal figures, and the essential participant memoirs all carry strong resale values that have only increased in recent years. The renewed public interest in the Oppenheimer story has expanded the collector base significantly, bringing new buyers into a market that was already robust.
But the less obvious material is often where I find the most interesting items in Los Alamos homes. The Los Alamos Historical Society has published pamphlets, booklets, and monographs since the 1960s, many in very small print runs. Some of these publications are the only available accounts of specific aspects of the project or of early community life on the Hill. Families who have lived in Los Alamos for decades accumulate these publications casually — picking them up at museum events, receiving them as gifts, or buying them at the Bradbury Science Museum gift shop. By the time three or four decades have passed, those casual acquisitions can represent a substantial and valuable collection of local history.
Signed copies add another dimension entirely. The Los Alamos community is small enough that many residents knew the principal figures of the Manhattan Project era personally, or knew their immediate descendants. Signed books from Oppenheimer-era scientists, inscribed copies of memoirs, and presentation volumes given as gifts between colleagues turn up in Los Alamos estates with a frequency that would be impossible anywhere else. These items carry premiums that can be substantial — the combination of the author, the recipient, and the provenance creates value that far exceeds the book's worth as a mere first edition.
If you are clearing a Los Alamos home and you find books related to the Manhattan Project, the Lab's history, or the early days of the community, please do not throw them out or split them up. Many of them are common. But some are genuinely rare, and they deserve a researcher's attention rather than a recycling bin. That is what they get at my warehouse: each Manhattan Project title is checked for edition, printing, and inscription before it's listed.
Box It Up — I'll Do the Sorting
Load the car for your next trip down the hill and leave the boxes in the free 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE — or ship them from Los Alamos at your own postage cost. No pressure. That is the whole pitch.
If you are trying to sell or clear books in Los Alamos, your local options are limited. Here is an honest look at what is available and where I fit in.
Mesa Public Library Friends Book Sale
The Friends of the Mesa Public Library run an excellent book sale, and it is essentially the only game in town for used books in Los Alamos. If you want to donate a collection of general-interest books to a good cause without leaving town, the Friends sale is a fine choice. A general book sale is built for quick pricing, though, not for researching a signed Bethe or a 1940s proceedings volume, and a 3,000-book house can be more than one sale can absorb. I am not competing with the Friends sale — NMLP simply takes what it can't: the full library, any condition, with the technical and Manhattan Project titles researched one at a time before they're listed.
Santa Fe Bookstores (Collected Works, Op Cit)
The nearest used bookstores are in Santa Fe, about 35 miles down the hill. Collected Works is primarily a new bookstore with limited used buying. Op Cit buys used books but is constrained by retail space and budget — they cannot take a 500-book collection. Both are good shops, but neither solves the problem of clearing a large Los Alamos library. And the proceedings, bound journals, and worn textbooks that fill most LANL shelves aren't what a retail shop stocks.
Los Alamos Does Not Have a Used Bookstore
This is the fundamental gap. A town full of some of the most well-read, heavily educated households in the country does not have a used bookstore. There is no local shop where you can walk in with a box of books and get an offer. That vacuum is exactly why this guide exists. NMLP does not send a truck to the Hill, but the drop box and mail-in put my warehouse within reach of every address in the county — and once the boxes arrive, I do the sorting a local used bookstore would otherwise have done.
Where I Fill the Gap
Here is what none of the above offers: one place that takes the entire library — the physics monographs, the bound journals, the Oppenheimer shelf, the paperbacks, even the water-stained boxes from the garage — and sorts it by hand. Rare pieces are researched for edition, printing, and signature before they're listed; that resale is what funds the work, and books that can't be sold are passed on to readers or recycled. No book goes to the landfill. I am not trying to replace the Friends sale or compete with Santa Fe bookshops. NMLP's pickup service is Albuquerque-metro only, so I won't be at your door — but the free 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE is open whenever you're in Albuquerque, and donor-paid mail-in works from any Los Alamos address. Questions? Call me.
Frequently Asked Questions: Selling Books in Los Alamos
Does NMLP pick up books in Los Alamos?
No. NMLP's pickup service covers the Albuquerque metro only, and Los Alamos — about 100 miles away — is outside it. You still have two ways to donate a whole Hill library: drop it free, any condition, at the 24/7 bin at 5445 Edith Blvd NE in Albuquerque, or mail it in at your own postage cost. The scientific and historical collections that come off the Hill are among the most interesting in New Mexico, and every box is sorted by hand when it arrives. Text me any time you'd like help planning the drop-box trip or a mail-in shipment. Call or text 505-250-3804.
What about classified materials or restricted documents?
I deal exclusively in personal libraries — commercially published books, journals, and materials that were always available to the general public. I do not handle classified documents, restricted data, or any materials with security markings of any kind. If you encounter anything that appears to have classification markings while clearing a library, contact LANL security directly. What I take is the personal bookshelf every scientist accumulates as a private citizen: the physics textbooks, the Manhattan Project histories, the novels, the popular science. Nothing that was ever behind the fence.
A LANL retiree in my family left 3,000 books. What are my options?
A library that size in a LANL home is worth handling deliberately, because these collections often hide genuinely rare technical and Manhattan Project material. NMLP does not do estate cleanouts or pickups in Los Alamos — that service is Albuquerque-metro only — so for a whole-house clearing on-site you'd hire a Los Alamos or Santa Fe estate service. What matters most is that the books don't end up in a dumpster: have them boxed for the free 24/7 drop box at 5445 Edith Blvd NE in Albuquerque or sent by donor-paid mail-in, and every box will be sorted by hand, with the rare pieces researched before they're listed. Keep any volumes the family wants for their own sake; you don't need to identify anything first. Ordinary readable books can also go to the Mesa Public Library Friends sale. Call 505-250-3804 to start the conversation.
Do Manhattan Project first editions really have value?
Yes, and often significant value. First editions of the major Manhattan Project histories are actively collected. Signed copies from figures associated with the project carry premiums that can reach well into four figures for the right combination of author, title, and provenance. Early Los Alamos Historical Society publications printed in small quantities carry values that surprise most families. The recent surge of public interest in the Oppenheimer story has pushed values higher across the entire category, and the market shows no sign of retreating. If you have Manhattan Project material, keep it with the rest of the library when it goes to the drop box or into the mail — each title is researched for edition, printing, and inscription before it's listed, and that resale is what funds the work. You don't need to read a copyright page or an inscription first.
Are conference proceedings worth anything?
It depends on the conference, the era, and the contents. Proceedings from major physics conferences in the 1940s through 1970s — especially those involving nuclear physics, weapons science, and early computing — can carry real value in the academic resale market. Proceedings that contain landmark papers by notable scientists are the most valuable, particularly if the print run was small. More recent proceedings from routine conferences have modest value at best, as the content is increasingly available digitally. At the warehouse I check each volume's contents and print run individually, so there's no need to sort them before they're boxed.
What about scientific journals and bound periodicals?
Most scientific journals from the last 30 years have very limited resale value because the content is available digitally. Where journals do carry value is in the early and mid-twentieth century — bound runs of Physical Review, Nature, Science, and specialized physics journals from the 1930s through 1960s are collected by institutions and private collectors alike. If you have older bound journals, especially from disciplines connected to the Lab's early work, please don't recycle them yourself — send them along with the books, and I'll separate the runs worth listing from the ones headed for paper recycling.
Do you serve White Rock and the rest of Los Alamos County?
I help with collections anywhere in Los Alamos County — White Rock, the townsite, Pajarito Acres, and the Espanola corridor — but with remote guidance, not a pickup truck. NMLP does not drive to any of these communities; the pickup service is Albuquerque-metro only. Many LANL families have settled in White Rock over the decades, and the libraries there are every bit as strong as those on the Hill itself. Text me if you'd like help planning the trip, and bring the boxes to the Albuquerque drop box or mail them in when you're ready.
What if I am not sure what is valuable in my collection?
You don't need to be. Most people cannot tell the difference between a common college textbook reprint and a genuinely rare first edition of the same title, and a family member clearing a LANL retiree's library should not be expected to know which conference proceedings contain landmark papers or which signed copies are significant. Sorting that out is my job, and it happens at the warehouse, book by book, after you donate. You do not need to inventory or research anything first. Keep what the family wants, box the rest, and bring it to the Albuquerque drop box or mail it in.
I have a deadline — an estate closing or home sale. Can NMLP help fast?
NMLP does not run pickups or estate cleanouts in Los Alamos, so for a hard deadline on the Hill you'll want a local or Santa Fe estate-clearing service that can be on-site quickly. Where I can help fast is planning: text me and I'll help you plan the drop-box trip or a mail-in shipment, so the books don't get swept out with everything else. Ordinary books can go to the Mesa Public Library Friends sale, and anything bound for NMLP can be dropped 24/7 at 5445 Edith Blvd NE in Albuquerque. Call 505-250-3804 and let me know your timeline.
What happens to books I drop off with NMLP?
No book goes to the landfill. Books with resale value get listed through NMLP's online channels — eBay, Amazon, and direct sales to academic dealers and collectors — and that resale funds the operation. Books with modest value go to the donation network: Little Free Libraries across Albuquerque, school programs, community organizations, and other nonprofits. Damaged books that cannot be read get paper-recycled. This is what happens to anything you drop at the 5445 Edith Blvd NE bin in Albuquerque; NMLP does not collect books in Los Alamos itself, so plan a donation drop-off around a trip you're already making.
Whether it is 50 paperbacks or 5,000 volumes from a lifetime at the Lab, it can all come to my warehouse — through the 24/7 drop box in Albuquerque or by donor-paid mail-in — and every box gets sorted by hand. Text me any time you'd like help planning the drop-box trip or a mail-in shipment. NMLP doesn't pick up in Los Alamos. No obligations. No pressure.