At the end of each semester, professors across the country make decisions on the textbooks they are going to use for their classes. Sometimes this is done through a committee and often it is done by a department. Students are always ready to sell their used textbooks back to the bookstores and if their edition of the book isn't going to be used again, the bookstore will not buy the book back.

Sometimes you can sell your books online and sometimes they are too old to sell. There is another way though if you just want to get rid of them: you can donate them to worthy causes.

Used textbooks are always needed in a variety of populations. People who are incarcerated, low income students and students in other countries are in particular need of any kind of textbook. There are also a variety of programs across the world that will take textbooks for different reasons.

Some of the programs that you can donate textbooks include:

1. Books for Africa -- although their emphasis is on elementary grades, they are doing great work for children in Africa who would not have access to books or textbooks without programs to help. You can find out more at their website online

2. Sudan-American Foundation for Education -- they take books for elementary, college and universities. They have several projects that help the youth and older students in their area.

3. American Medical Students Association -- if you are a medical student or know someone who is, and you are ready to let go of some of your textbooks, this is a great place to donate. They take medical textbooks and journals. They also list several other places that accept donations of used textbooks. You can find out more at their web page on the Internet.

4. Better World Books -- this organization gets their books by doing book drives on 1600 campuses world wide. They are always looking for other universities and colleges to help them in creating these drives. You can find out how you can help your college help them through their online website.

These are just a few of the worthy programs where you can send your books. When you are donating to programs like these it is important to understand that they each have a specific way to donate books. You will be wise to go to their websites to see what you need to do so they can get your books quickly. Addresses and opportunities to donate are available as well.

Donating used textbooks is a great way to get rid of books that you would otherwise throw away. You can also donate other books to these causes.