Toronto Public Library won't take a book more than five years old. The Children's Book Bank turns down anything with a yellowed page. Victoria College won't take a Reader's Digest condensed book, and Diabetes Canada will collect your books from the doorstep but won't let you put them in its clothing bin. The places that accept books in Toronto each set different rules, and each one publishes them. All the rules below were read on the organisations' own pages on 13 October 2026.
- Toronto Public Library branches want recent, resellable, English or French
- BOOKEnds takes most of what the branches turn away
- Where to donate children's books in Toronto
- Trinity and Victoria accept twenty boxes at a time
- Two thrift operations sell books, and one collects from your door
- Prison libraries take books, but not through Book Clubs for Inmates
- A Little Free Library holds a handful of books
- What to do with the books nobody will take
- Common questions about donating books in Toronto
Toronto Public Library branches want recent, resellable, English or French
Toronto Public Library takes donations at its branches, and the library's donation page is blunt about why the rules are narrow: "Branches only accept material that can be resold." Donated books go on the sale shelf in most branches, and the money goes to library programs and services. Nothing you hand over joins the catalogue.
Material has to be in very good condition and less than five years old. Only English and French books, CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays qualify, and the library prefers popular fiction and nonfiction in hardcover, mass market and trade paperbacks. Magazines, computer books, textbooks, encyclopaedias and multilingual material get refused at the desk.
Branches only accept donations during their open hours. The library issues no tax receipt for books, and neither does Friends of Toronto Public Library.
BOOKEnds takes most of what the branches turn away
Friends of Toronto Public Library is an all-volunteer organisation that runs two used bookstores, and its list is much wider than the library's own. Their donation page accepts:
- Fiction and non-fiction, adult, children and teen
- Non-English materials
- Vintage books
- Sheet music, vinyl records, CDs and DVDs
- Jigsaw puzzles
- Textbooks, medical books and computer books, under five years old preferred
- Audiobooks and magazines, at BOOKEnds South only
Cassette tapes, VHS tapes and encyclopedias are the refusals. Condition matters more than age here: no mould, no water or smoke damage, no missing pages. A book that lost its dust jacket is still welcome.
BOOKEnds South sits inside the Toronto Reference Library. Roughly two boxes or less goes straight into the donation box out front whenever the library is open, Monday to Friday 9 am to 8:30 pm, Saturday 9 am to 5 pm, Sunday noon to 5 pm. Three boxes or more needs an appointment on 416-397-5948. BOOKEnds North is on the concourse level of North York Central Library, open Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday 10 am to 4 pm and Friday 10 am to 6 pm. Hand roughly three boxes or less to the desk; four or more needs a call to 416-395-5810 first. North has no donations box, and the Friends ask that nothing is left outside the door when the store is closed.
The volunteers have raised $3.5 million for library programs since 1990.
Where to donate children's books in Toronto
The Children's Bookbank and Literacy Foundation gives free books to children, and its test for a donation is one line: "If you would give the book as a gift to a child that you know, then we're happy to give it to a child that we know!" It takes books for ages 0 to 18 in gently used or new condition, and its donation guidelines say that generally, books printed in this millennium are acceptable.
What they ask for first is books with diverse characters, baby and board books, preschooler books, non-fiction about dinosaurs, animals, nature and space, the popular series (Dog Man, Diary of a Wimpy Kid, Captain Underpants), and graphic novels and manga at every age. Textbooks, encyclopedias, workbooks, library books and self-published books all come back out of the box, along with anything showing water damage, yellowing or tears.
The Book Bank only receives donations on a handful of published Saturdays a year, 11:00 am to 2:30 pm, at the shipping bay beside 334 Bleecker St and at 1154 Morningside Ave. On the 2026 schedule the remaining dates are Saturday 24 October at Bleecker St and Saturday 12 December at both. The Book Bank asks in writing that nobody takes donations to its Regent Park storefront at 585 Dundas St E. The directory's education category lists the other literacy and schools charities working in the city.
Trinity and Victoria accept twenty boxes at a time
Two University of Toronto colleges run annual book sales. Volunteer Friends groups run both, not the university.
The Trinity College Friends of the Library book sale runs 21 to 25 October 2026 in Seeley Hall, second floor, 6 Hoskin Avenue, with more than 50,000 books plus CDs and DVDs, $8 admission on the opening day and free entry after. Money raised supports the John W. Graham Library. Donations go by appointment only, on Saturdays between 10 am and 2 pm, booked ahead at Trinity.fotl@utoronto.ca; their donation page says the year's intake opened on 1 March 2026 and that walk-ins can't be accommodated. Pack into boxes no larger than an LCBO box, a banker's box or 15 by 12 by 10 inches, flaps closed and packed to capacity, twenty boxes at most. They refuse anything musty, mouldy, heavily marked up, water damaged or broken-backed, plus magazines, journals, textbooks over ten years old, encyclopedias, Reader's Digest Condensed Books, Time/Life and other subscription series, and VHS and cassette tapes. Pickups can be arranged at the same email address.
The Victoria University sale has run since 1992 and has raised almost $3 million for the Vic library. The 2026 sale is over, and the Friends' book sale page reads "We will not be accepting book donations after July 30th. We will start to accept donations again in October 2026", with intake on Tuesdays between 11:00 am and 2:30 pm. Call (416) 585-4585 before you drive over, because that notice doesn't say which Tuesday the door reopens. They want hard and soft cover books, vinyl, CDs and DVDs in all subjects in great condition, in banker's boxes or liquor store boxes the volunteers can lift. Encyclopedia sets, journals, magazines, Reader's Digest condensed books, discarded library books, outdated or underlined textbooks and musty books are all out. Drop-off is the library delivery entrance off Queen's Park Crescent East, north of St. Joseph Street, using the intercom to the left of the double doors. Other literary and arts organisations in the city sit in the directory's arts and culture category.
Two thrift operations sell books, and one collects from your door
The Salvation Army Thrift Store lists books and media among the things its Donor Welcome Centres accept, and it has more than 120 locations across the country. Its donations page says plainly that it cannot offer pick-up, so a donation there means driving to a Donor Welcome Centre. Tax receipts there are for valuables with a fair market value over $500, not for a box of paperbacks.
If you can't drive, Diabetes Canada will come to you. Books appear on the household items list for free home pick-up, alongside bakeware, cookware, cutlery, decorative accents, small appliances and tableware, and you book it on 1-800-505-5525 or through the Declutter for Diabetes site. Everything has to be in sealed bags or boxes under 40 lbs, left on the doorstep, because loose items won't be collected.
Books are not on the list for the donation bins, which take textiles only. Diabetes Canada spends about $200,000 a year clearing rubbish from around its bins, and asks that nothing is left beside one.
Prison libraries take books, but not through Book Clubs for Inmates
Book Clubs for Inmates does not want your books. Its take action page says so directly: "Book Clubs for Inmates does not collect donations of used books." The charity runs volunteer-led discussion groups inside federal institutions and buys new copies for members to keep, working toward a club in every penitentiary in the country.
Books for the institutions themselves go through one address. The Correctional Service of Canada welcomes new or gently used books from the public, and its education programs page lists what institutional libraries want: audio and braille books, fiction at a range of reading levels, large-print fiction and non-fiction, graphic novels, grammar books, dictionaries and thesauruses, legal reference material, learning materials including the For Dummies series, and magazines no more than two years old. Anything depicting excessive violence or sexual violence, hate speech, or how to make or hide a weapon will be refused. Book Clubs for Inmates sets out the rest of the criteria on its own page: books must not be markedly old, classic literature aside, must carry no attached CD-ROMs and must not be textbooks. Every enquiry goes to bookdonation@csc-scc.gc.ca first, not to a local prison gate.
A Little Free Library holds a handful of books
The box on the lawn at the end of the street is a Little Free Library, a take a book, share a book exchange looked after by whoever owns the house or the shop it stands outside. Anyone can leave books in one, and the organisation's guidance for donors asks for two courtesies: don't cram books into a box that's already full, and speak to the owner if you're not sure it's all right to leave them. Their world map shows the registered boxes near you.
A houseful of books goes to one of the places above instead.
What to do with the books nobody will take
Three categories are refused by every organisation above: encyclopedia sets, textbooks older than about ten years, and anything musty, mouldy, water damaged or missing pages. The City of Toronto's reduce and reuse page gives the condition rule: what organisations accept varies, "but none want items that are wet, mildewed or contaminated with hazardous waste."
For disposal, check your own item rather than trusting a general rule. The City's Waste Wizard answers by item and tells you which stream it belongs in, and the blue bin list sets out the paper the recycling programme takes. Since 1 January 2026 a private company has run residential recycling in Toronto rather than the City, under a provincial requirement, and recycling questions now go to circularmaterials.ca/Toronto or 1-888-921-2686.
Intake dates move. Our Toronto charity events page lists the fundraising events coming up across the city. Before you load the car, call the number on the organisation's page and ask whether they're receiving this week.
Common questions about donating books in Toronto
Will anyone give me a tax receipt for donated books?
No, not for an ordinary box of books. Toronto Public Library states on its donation page that it does not issue tax receipts for donations. Friends of Toronto Public Library says the same: "we are unable to issue tax receipts for donated materials." The Victoria College Book Sale repeats it in its own guidelines, noting that no charitable receipt will be issued for donated books. The Salvation Army Thrift Store issues charitable tax receipts for high-value gifts with a fair market value over $500, which covers jewellery and property rather than paperbacks. A receipt has to carry a defensible fair market value, and a volunteer at a desk cannot appraise forty mixed titles that may or may not sell. If a receipt is the point of the exercise, give money instead: every organisation named here takes cash donations and receipts them properly, and several of them tell you what the money buys. The Children's Bookbank and Literacy Foundation spends it on books for children who have none at home. The Friends groups at Trinity and Victoria put it into their college libraries. Book Clubs for Inmates buys new copies for its members to keep, which is exactly why it turns used books away. The book donation and the tax question are separate decisions.
What can I do with textbooks and encyclopedias?
A recent textbook has one or two homes in Toronto and an old one has none. Friends of Toronto Public Library accepts textbooks, medical books and computer books at its BOOKEnds stores, preferring copies under five years old. Trinity College's Friends of the Library refuses textbooks more than ten years old, and Victoria College refuses anything outdated or underlined. Toronto Public Library branches refuse textbooks outright, as does the Children's Book Bank, and the Correctional Service of Canada's criteria exclude them too. So the order is simple: if the edition is current, try BOOKEnds first; if it is between five and ten years old and clean, a college sale is the next call; if it is older than that or marked up, no charity in this guide will take it. Encyclopedia sets are worse. Toronto Public Library, Friends of TPL, Trinity, Victoria and the Children's Book Bank all name encyclopedias on their refusal lists, which is as close to unanimous as this subject gets. Trinity names Time/Life and other subscription series on the same refusal list, and Victoria refuses journals and magazines as well. Before recycling either, check the item in the City of Toronto's Waste Wizard, which answers by item rather than by category.
Does anyone in Toronto pick books up from my home?
Yes, two organisations do, and the rules differ. Diabetes Canada runs free home pick-up and lists books under household items, so you book a collection on 1-800-505-5525 or online, pack everything into sealed bags or boxes weighing less than 40 lbs, and leave them on the doorstep. Loose items are not collected. Trinity College's Friends of the Library will also arrange a pickup for book sale donations, by emailing Trinity.fotl@utoronto.ca, under the same twenty-box ceiling and box-size rules as a drop-off. The Salvation Army Thrift Store states on its donations page that it cannot offer pick-up services, so those go to a Donor Welcome Centre in person. Toronto Public Library, Friends of TPL and the Children's Book Bank are all drop-off only, and the Book Bank's drop-offs happen on a handful of published Saturdays rather than daily. A clothing bin is no substitute for a collection either: Diabetes Canada's bins take textiles only, and the charity asks that nothing is left on the ground beside them. If mobility is the reason you are asking, say so when you call: the Friends of TPL page specifically invites people who cannot carry boxes in from the car to ring ahead and make an appointment, at 416-397-5948 for BOOKEnds South and 416-395-5810 for BOOKEnds North.
How should I pack and sort the boxes?
Pack small, pack full, and sort by destination rather than by subject. Trinity College is the most specific: boxes no larger than an LCBO box, a banker's box or 15 by 12 by 10 inches, flaps closed, packed to capacity with no filler in the gaps, and twenty boxes at most per donor. Victoria College asks for banker's boxes and liquor store boxes so its volunteers can lift them. Diabetes Canada caps a home pick-up bag or box at 40 lbs. Friends of Toronto Public Library sets no box size, and asks only that nothing arrives with mould, water or smoke damage, or missing pages. On sorting, make one pile per place before you tape anything shut: anything printed in the last five years in English or French for a library branch, children's titles from this millennium for the Book Bank, vintage, non-English, sheet music and vinyl for BOOKEnds, everything general and clean for a college sale or a thrift shop. Then run the condition test every organisation uses in some form, which is the Children's Book Bank's: would you give this book to a child you know? If the answer is no because of the state of the book, it goes in the recycling rather than the donation box.
What happens to the books after I hand them over?
Most of them get sold, and the money stays in the institution you gave them to. Toronto Public Library sells donated books in most branches and puts the proceeds toward library programs and services, which is also why the five-year rule exists: a branch sale shelf needs stock that moves. Friends of Toronto Public Library sells donations through its two BOOKEnds stores and has raised $3.5 million for library programs since 1990, all of it handled by volunteers. The Trinity College sale puts its takings into projects and activities at the John W. Graham Library, and the Victoria College sale, running since 1992, has generated almost $3 million for the Vic library. More than 50,000 books go out over the five days of the 2026 Trinity sale. The Salvation Army Thrift Store sells donated goods to fund Salvation Army programs and services, and Diabetes Canada sells what it collects to fund diabetes research, camps and support. The Children's Bookbank and Literacy Foundation gives the books away free to children in Toronto rather than selling them, which is why its condition standard is the strictest on this page. The Correctional Service of Canada puts donated books into institutional libraries for people to read, not to buy.