CU-Boulder聮s Office of Community Relations and the CU Bookstore joined forces last spring to collect used textbooks from CU students as they prepared to leave campus for the summer.
At the end of each semester, students have the option of selling their textbooks back to the bookstore, although many books do not meet the criteria for "buy back." At the end of the spring 聭99 semester, however, more than 1,500 books fell into that category.
According to Pam Mills, director of the CU Bookstore, textbooks are continuously being updated. "With rapid changes in information, new book editions are being published at a very quick rate. Therefore the used books in many cases are not eligible to be bought back."
The Office of Community Relations worked with state organizations and schools to find groups that could use the books.
Organizations that received textbooks this summer include Attention Homes, Mile High Jazz Camp, the Buena Vista Correctional Facility聮s library and GED program, Boulder County Jail聮s library, the CU Bueno Center聮s High School Equivalency Program, Hughes Science Initiative Teacher Workshops, CU聮s ALTEC foreign language lab, Fremont Correctional Institution and the Magic Circle Theater in Montrose.
The textbook program has been so successful that the Community Relations Office is planning to continue collecting books at the end of each semester.
For more information, please contact CU-Boulder's Office of Community Relations at (303) 492-7084.