We have been giving free books to organizations in the North-East since 2006. Recipients include Womens Aid, Shelter, Barnardo’s, the Comfrey Project, St Vincent de Paul, Salvation Army, N-E Refugee Council, Common Ground, The Hope Foundation, Open Door, Cyrenians, Panah, Haven,
St Chads, Pakistan Cultural Society, YMCA, West End Refugee Service, Crisis Skylight, ACANE, Stockton Multi-Lingual Service, Whitehouse Lane Youth Club, Wrekenton Community Centre and the Durham Prison Service.
Borderline Books UK is based in Gateshead but ready to spread far and wide. Eventually we hope to set up BookSpaces all over the country so that people who need them are never far from a source of free books.
We are looking to form partnerships with organizations working to empower disadvantaged people and setting up work-projects.
Ideally, BookSpaces are not only full of books, but full of people with creative ideas and the wish to inspire others. They can provide a great venue for writing groups, language and literacy classes and almost anything you might care to dream of.
We hope that even the old and battered books will be given a new lease of life as part of an art project.
There are a number of organizations in Europe shipping books to countries in Africa and Asia, but very few which collect overstocks and lightly damaged copies for distribution to vulnerable and disadvantaged people in Britain. We aim to reduce the number of books pulped and to provide free books for those who otherwise might not have adequate access to books for various reasons.
