Instead of getting little or no money back from selling used textbooks, students this semester can donate books to fill once-empty libraries in Africa.
Circle K, a student organization dedicated to serving the global community, is sponsoring a book drive through Better World Books. The book drive begins this week and will continue until Dec. 14.
Last spring, Circle K collected and shipped 1,000 books from UNC to Better World Books. The group's goal this semester is to surpass that number and collect 1,500 books.
The main collection sites for the book drive are located outside UNC Student Stores, Ram Book and Supply and Tarheel Book Store.
There also will be boxes to donate books at other locations near dorms and classrooms on campus.
In the fall of 2002, its initial year of existence, Better World Books organized a book drive at the University of Notre Dame that collected 2,000 books for a human service agency in Indiana, according to the organization's Web site. In the winter of that year, the organization teamed up with Books for Africa to set up book drives to send college textbooks to 23 countries on the continent.
Better World Books is a nonprofit organization originally called Campus Community Outreach. Its name was changed last summer.
Books for Africa has collected and shipped more than 10 million books to Africa since its establishment in 1988, according to the Web site. The goal of this nonprofit organization is to "end the book famine in Africa."
In spring 2003, Better World Books and Books for Africa organized book drives at 35 colleges and universities nationwide. About 45,000 books were collected.
