Clean out your bookcase and do a good deed. I suspect there are many health care providers who no longer need their medical books and would like to donate them to students and practitioners in developing countries but don’t know how. The following are four organizations that can distribute your books within the United States and around the world. Some donations are tax deductible; check each site for details. Also, please keep in mind that recent materials with current information will have the greatest impact, and some materials may be too outdated to responsibly donate to fellow practitioners or students.

Operation Medical Libraries started as Books Without Borders. They are seeking “new or gently used” textbooks published after 2005.

The International Book Project, Inc., seeks medical books without broken bindings, torn or missing pages, excessive underlining, or extreme yellowing. The only journals they accept are JAMA and the New England Journal of Medicine.

Bridge to Asia seeks medical and health books, journals, monographs, and databases in English and all other languages.

Books for Africa wants medical and nursing books published in 1995 and later.