By Ang Yiying

IT MIGHT be a laborious process, but collecting and distributing free books could mean the world to the needy.

Groups and individuals involved in collecting and distributing these volumes put in untold hours to gather the books, weed out unsuitable ones, sort and store them.

Books are especially meaningful and help in education, say those involved in book donations, including large annual events like the NTUC FairPrice used textbooks collection and the National Library Board's (NLB) charity book donation.

This year, FairPrice alone distributed 100,000 used textbooks to 11,500 recipients, while the NLB gave out 70,000 old library books to 85 voluntary welfare organisations.

Smaller organisations - even individual groups - have also got in on the act with smaller-scale book drives.

For instance, the Singapore Academy of Law organised a year-end charity project, A Storybook Christmas, in which about 1,500 storybooks were collected for underprivileged children aged four to eight.

The coordinator of the project, Ms Rebecca Sit, said: 'These young children are from low-income families. This was a meaningful project as we could help these children by donating not toys or presents, but...storybooks to encourage them to read and learn.'

Groups such as Books To Read, which has 11 volunteers, have also sprouted up. Books To Read aims to collect 5,000 books for students of three secondary schools in Africa.

Last Saturday, a van driven by Books To Read volunteers collected books from friends and the public at eight locations.

Planning the most effective route was a challenge, said the group's co-founder Kaushal Dugar, 25. The group picked up about 500 books in three hours.

After collection comes book sorting.

Books that are out: those that are torn and tattered, those that contain religious content, and those that do not suit the profile of the intended recipients.

Yio Chu Kang Secondary School student Fadilah Kamarudin, 14, one of the more than 200 volunteers for the FairPrice used textbooks collection this month, estimated that 20 per cent of the books she sorted had to be taken out.

'The book covers are missing; the pages are missing. Some of them have drawings in them,' she said.

Book sorting can be a physically tiring chore.

Fadilah, who clocked five eight-hour days carrying and categorising textbooks, said: 'When I got home, my whole body was aching.'

Book collections are not always about used books - some lucky recipients may get brand-new books.

For example, in conjunction with its 40th anniversary this year, the Singapore Book Publishers Association organised a book donation. Its members donated about 2,700 storybooks and magazines from their old print run to 11 reading centres under the Central Singapore Community Development Council.

ayiying@sph.com.sg

This article was first published in The Straits Times on 20 Dec, 2008.