• Books and magazines should be in good readable condition. Books with broken spines, missing pages or covers, or that are water damaged should be discarded. We are unable to sell such books.
• Please discard any books that have a mildewy oder. Mildew can spread easily between stored books and is difficult to get rid of.
• Old magazines that are of special interest (e.g., gardening, woodworking, cooking, architecture) are great. However, dated magazines (e.g., Time, Newsweek) or ubiquitous magazines (e.g., Good Housekeeping, Prevention) are not good sellers. We prefer not to receive old National Geographics.
• We accept videos, DVDs, books-on-tape, books-on-CD, audio cassettes, CDs, and records. Homemade video and audio tapes are not accepted.
• We will accept software CDs if they are not too old.
• Jigsaw puzzles and board games are accepted.
• Please do not leave us old televisions or computer monitors. See Medford's recycling page for proper disposal.

We always have the librarians look through new donations first in order to catch any materials that can be added to the library's collection. Many books and videos have been added in this way, especially replacement copies of damaged books. (See Operation Replacement.) This can save the library hundreds of dollars in its book budget that can then be used for purchasing additional new materials.

Please leave your books and other materials to be donated at the circulation desk in the library. It is extremely helpful if you can bring your items to the library yourself. However, if you are unable to do so, we do have volunteers that will be happy to pick them up. Please call the library at 781-395-7950 and leave a message asking for a pick-up. A volunteer will call you back and make arrangements to do so.

Starting July 1, 2002, the Library began Operation Replacement, a project to replace old, worn books with fresh copies received as donations. As of February 2004, 577 worn out books of fiction and non-fiction have been replaced with newer copies. At an average cost of $27.00 for a hardcover book, your donations have helped the library to save $13,797.00 in replacement costs during the last year. Thank you!