If you go to the 4th floor of O’Leary Library and take a right from the elevators, you’ll see a large cart of books where you can either leave some of your old books or take some books for yourself. The best part: they’re all free!

Every day the book cart has an almost entirely different set of books that encompass a wide range of topics, from psychology to music. Most of what is put on the cart, however, is fiction, which is fitting as the cart sits directly outside of UMass Lowell’s English department.

Associate Professor Laura Barefield stocks most of the books from the English Department, but other professors and students have also occasionally provided material. Although the cart has been a mainstay of the English Department for years, it remains unguarded on the fourth floor, as students from any major are welcome to pick up a book they find appealing.

“I started putting the cart out about 5 years ago,” says Barefield. “While that is a very long time, the tradition of the cart started from even humbler beginnings.”

“Mary Kramer started it and after she retired I took over the cart for her,” says Barefield. Mary Kramer was an English professor for 40 years before retirement. Barefield also said Kramer had put out free books for students for “at least 13 years.”

“She would just put out a small box filled with donated books. On the subject of Professor Kramer, Barefield said, “Mary was very dedicated and always cared for students.”

The tradition of students at UMass Lowell having access to free books is a long one, but what was a mere box of books was replaced with a cart of books three years ago.

Back then, the English Department had an unusual layout with tall stacks of books sitting amongst the offices. It was very unusual for the staff, and eventually the books had to be moved somewhere else.

It was at this time that a leftover cart with wheels was found, which was perfect to put the books on display. Before then, students were forced to dig out books in order to see the titles.

Over the years, there have been more than just books on the shelf. Professor Rita Sullivan sometimes donated copies of the New Yorker, and Professor Jonathan Silverman would sometimes stock the shelf with copies of Rolling Stone.

Professor Barefield also doesn’t shy away from stocking the shelf with popular young adult novels and other best selling fiction. Works from Stephen King, Tom Clancy, J.K. Rowling, and Stephenie Meyer have all sat on that cart at one point and will probably sit on it again at some point.

Barefield allows anyone to donate their materials there but she does makes sure that what is on the shelf is relevant. “There is a lot of fiction and classic literature but there is a lot of non-fiction as well,” she says. “But one of the more unusual things I’ve seen donated were Russian technical manuals.”

Although technical manuals in foreign languages might not be the most welcome, the criteria for what is allowed on the shelf are lenient. “We have seen math textbooks,” said Barefield.
The origin of the books, whether they are math or Shakespeare related, is uncertain. Most of them come from anonymous donors who wish to not be named.

A library, which also does not wish to be named, donates boxes upon boxes of books for the students here at UMass Lowell. The donor library gets a surplus of books from book sales that have leftover stock as well as private donors.

All that can be determined from the donor library for sure was that they’re located somewhere in Massachusetts and that the agreement they have with the English department means that they remain low-key. Their silent generosity has not gone unnoticed.

“About 99% of them go,” says Barefield. Students clear the shelf in a quick amount of time and the classics (Shakespeare’s plays, romantic poetry, American novels, etc.) are usually among the first to go.

“It was hard to get rid of ‘Belinda’ [the novel] and I don’t even know why because its a great book,” said Barefield, shrugging. “I would see students and try talk to them about it, but for some reason it stayed on the shelf.”

But while a book may struggle to find its rightful owner like an old dog at an animal shelter, most are rescued by happy students. The shelf has even saved many students from spending money on books that they instead got for free.

“I remember one student saying to me ‘This book was on my Christmas list and it would have cost me $20 if I had bought it’ while holding up the book to me,” says Barefield.

Some students have found textbooks still in use for certain classes on the shelf although it is just as easy to assume that they sold it to the bookstore for free money.

But what is even more interesting is that the concept of “free books” may cause students to extend out of their comfort zones and read something they might not have read otherwise. When you stand to lose $20, you want to make sure that what you’re buying is good.

The difficulty in this is that you typically can’t tell if a book is good until you read it so purchasing a book is almost always a risk. But if it’s free, you might experiment with your reading choices.

What is even better about book donation services is that it puts readers in contact with free literature that exists as tangible copies that aren’t in a .pdf format. You also don’t have total say in what is available so everyday is like a big mystery where you could find something that you’ve never heard of.