Old CSUEB textbooks drive new sales at Hayward library fundraisers

Dr. Lee and Vince Ang standing in front of a pick-up truck loaded with boxes of donated of textbooks.

(L-R) CSUEB Professor Michael Lee and Vince Ang, operations manager at the Hayward Public Library, preparing to move the donated textbooks. (By: Dr. Michael Lee)

September 25, 2013 5:00am

The Friends of Hayward Public Library will have 649 textbooks to sell at their upcoming fundraiser thanks to Cal State East Bay Professor Michael Lee and students in Lee’s spring Environmental Studies Senior Seminar class who led the collection. This initiative was part of campus sustainability efforts to reduce materials going to the landfill, support beneficial programs in our local community, and creatively reuse unwanted items taking up space in offices and laboratories.

It is expected that between 80-90% of these books will be sold by Friends at their regular stall at the Hayward Farmer's Market, with the rest shared with Better World Books for donation to developing countries. Textbooks covered a wide range of topics with over 180 books coming from the CSUEB nursing program alone which delighted the library staff as these kinds of books are popular and quickly sold. Wooden Window, Inc. of Oakland donated free transportation to move all the books from campus to the downtown Hayward library.

Lee hopes that a similar event can be held this year to generate more unwanted books from our campus that can benefit the Hayward Library and others in the process.