Hello Book Thing friends,

At our November double opening, we recorded 1,094 sign-outs totaling 23,182 books books and 1,222 non-books. We also accepted donations of 14,198 books and 1,926 non-books.

We express our sincere thanks to everyone who has volunteered, donated books, supported us financially, or contributed wishlist items this year. Without you, we wouldn’t be here. If you do charitable giving at the end of the year, we hope you will consider supporting The Book Thing’s mission: putting unwanted books into the hands of those who want them, for free. Please visit our Donate page for more information.

Upcoming events

December marks the end of the year, and thus the last event in our 2024 series of book giveaways falling on the second full weekend of the month. Limited book donation hours coincide with each public opening. Our events alternate between Saturday and Sunday.

  • Sun, Dec 15 – 9a-2p/5p – details below

Dates for book giveaways and donation hours in early 2025 will be forthcoming in a future announcement. We will continue the “second full weekend of the month” pattern, with extra dates added when possible. We will certainly hold a donation day in January, but we haven’t yet made a decision about a giveaway.

Indoor book giveaway: Sunday, December 15th, 9am-5pm

We will allow patrons into the building to browse for books on December 15th, using a timed-entry format. As usual, all lines will form outdoors. Dress for the weather, bring an umbrella if it’s rainy, etc.

Here’s what else you need to know:

  • 110 patrons will be permitted to enter on the hour each hour from 9am to 4pm. The first entrance will be at 9am, and the last entrance at 4pm. All patrons must exit before 5pm.
  • Our system is first-come, first-served; there are no reservations – just come get in line!
  • Please don’t be deterred by our format. It helps keep things moving so that you get a chance to browse sooner, and it lets us serve more patrons.
  • Patrons will have 55 minutes to browse our stacks, select their books, and exit the building. The time limit will be strictly enforced. You may get back in line to re-enter… and many patrons do so!
  • The line is always long for the first entrance or two. But for several months now we’ve been consistently below the headcount limit for entrances in the afternoon, and sometimes even in the late morning as well. That means there’s often no wait to enter.  Sometimes we don’t even have to enforce the 55-min limit. And yes, we still have books later in the day!
  • Upon exiting, patrons will form an outdoor line to count their books and sign out (even if it’s raining).
  • If a patron exits early, a new patron who is waiting may enter “on standby” and use the remainder of the 55 minute time slot. This new patron will not be permitted to stay beyond the end of the time slot, extend into the next time slot, or hold their original place in line for a later time slot. Standby entry means you accept that you will have less than 55 minutes to browse.
  • One parent may be accompanied by a maximum of three children, and all children must be accompanied by an adult. For everyone’s safety, please ensure your children are well-supervised – our kids’ section gets busy and crowded!
  • Patrons will enter through the red room door and exit through the blue room door.
  • The restroom will be available, but you will not be permitted to enter the building to use it except when it’s your turn to be inside browsing for books. Please plan accordingly.
  • We have some spare boxes available to hold your books.
  • Out of courtesy to other patrons and to facilitate traffic flow, please leave your large boxes/wagons/etc. outside the exit door and fill them an armful at a time, rather than carting them around with you.
  • Masks are no longer required indoors at TBT; masking is optional but welcome.
  • Please note: TBT welcomes trained service animals but is not a pet-friendly location.

Book donations: 9a-2p

We will open the book donation window on Dec 15th, from 9a to 2p only. We welcome all book donations, and especially popular fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, classics, non-diet cookbooks, all science topics, English dictionaries, and Bibles. We find it hard to keep these shelves restocked.

  • Book donation hours are 9am-2pm on Dec 15. If we have to cancel a book giveaway for any reason, the book donation hours will also be canceled.
  • The donation limit is 7 boxes per family. Boxes must be small enough that one person can lift them when full.
  • We accept all types of books except encyclopedia sets.
  • We accept all types of popular and hobby magazines. We do not accept technical, academic, or professional journals. Please don’t bring us your collection of literary magazines.
  • Due to space limitations, we still aren’t accepting media items.
  • Please don’t bring us books that are moldy, sticky, stinky, or missing pages/covers.
  • If you need a tax receipt for your donation, please mention that right up front. We’ll need to count your books separately. Thanks in advance for your patience!
  • Unfortunately, we can’t come pick up book donations, but we might have a volunteer who can help you unload them from your vehicle.
  • Please don’t recruit friends to circumvent our quantity limit: our volunteers are already stretched to capacity on donation days. If you have more than 7 boxes of books that you wish to donate, please Contact us separately.
  • We can only accept book donations as outlined above. If you leave books outside of donation hours, you may be cited by the City for illegal dumping.

Year-end recap

Looking back, 2024 has been another year of progress for The Book Thing,

In February, we finally vacated the off-site warehouse and brought the last of our old inventory back to TBT. This was huge! We still have a few boxes of those warehouse books tucked in a corner, but the new donations you have shared with us every month are “fresher” and better in just about every sense. So far this year, we’ve counted in more than 165k book donations.  Thank you so much for your contributions.  If you need information about donation days, please check our Donate page.

In October, we celebrated our 25th anniversary as an organization.  That’s right, TBT is a quarter of a century old! The founders filed Maryland incorporation paperwork in August of 1999 and requested provisional IRS non-profit status the following month – and with that, The Book Thing of Baltimore came into official existence. We have remained true to the founding mission ever since: putting unwanted books into the hands of those who want them, for free.

In November, we were able to open for both Saturday and Sunday of the same weekend for the first time since 2019.  This pilot test was successful, and it helped us learn more about how patron attendance and incoming book donations respond to increased availability.  It also showed us that two years of growing and training the volunteer pool and improving internal processes have paid off. At this point, TBT has the capacity to handle a double event on occasion, although it is a huge push that asks a lot of our volunteers. In 2025, we hope to continue the pilot with a few additional twice-a-month openings.

TBT has served more than 800 patrons on average at each of our monthly openings in 2024.  So far, we’ve given away more than 184k books, already well in excess of our 2023 totals. December is always a big month for book adoptions, so that number will only grow.  We estimate that about half the books that pass through The Book Thing are for children and teens – helping teachers, homeschoolers, and young readers.  We are grateful to Maryland Book Bank for donating kids’ books in bulk to help us keep this section restocked.

Every book we give away is handled multiple times by volunteers as it moves through our sorting processes to end up on the shelves and go home with a happy patron. We absolutely love giving away books, and we are so grateful to be part of a book-loving community, but it takes a lot of in-person, on-site, hands-on labor. TBT volunteers are what make it all possible.  Over the past two years, we’ve more than doubled the number of trained volunteers.  One hundred and sixty volunteers have collectively given an astounding 8,360 hours of their time so far this year… and we still have a month to go!  If you are interested in volunteering with us in 2025, please fill out the Contact form.

Lots of people ask when we will be open more often. They point out that for many years, TBT was open every weekend. Understandably, patrons wonder when we might get back to that level of activity.  The short answer is that we still don’t know: we just can’t see far enough into the future.  In past years, we have explained how budget and staffing are a challenge. To be open more often, we need enough labor to keep the shelves reasonably restocked and to staff the hours we are open. We continue to work on that challenge!

Last year, we won a grant from the Abell Foundation that helped make it possible to hire a part-time operations and volunteer manager in fall 2023. As we explained at the time, it wasn’t a silver bullet: 20 hours/week of staff time isn’t sufficient to support opening every weekend. As the hiring process became a bit prolonged, we decided to recruit and train two new volunteer coordinators to share the duties. The good news? They’ve been fabulous! They are a huge part of why we’ve been able to welcome volunteers on-site more often in 2024, and why we were able to test a double opening in November.  We will continue to look for funds for more staff support in 2025.  Staffing is crucial for TBT’s sustainability as an organization, since even the most devoted volunteers have only so many hours they can give.

The Board and dedicated volunteers continue to work to secure TBT’s long-term future.  That means building out the funding, systems, relationships, and internal capacity of a healthy, self-sustaining organization.  It’s exciting to be building back! We renew our promise that we’ll keep working one step at a time — what we can, when we can. We look forward to future milestones like recruiting an executive director, adding more volunteer times, securing more staff support, and being able to open to the public more often.  Regardless, one thing is certain: there are no plans to change the fundamental mission and nature of TBT – lots of free books!

We are so grateful to be part of a book-loving community, and we thank you for your understanding and support. As always, please direct any and all inquiries to the Board of Directors via the Contact form on our website.

Wishing you all the peace and joy of the season, we remain yours in books.