The Zombie Stack Exchanges That Just Won't Die
Developing countries typically have much smaller budgets for libraries than developed nations.
For example, in India, government libraries are usually short-staffed, and short on budget.
They could very well use older books and publications which the libraries in the US or Europe (English language) would discard due to age or lack of patronage.
Are there any such programs already? If so please list.
These would also work for Spanish/French too, to different third-world countries.
PrasannaK
Better World Books and their partner Books for Africa may be the sort of organization you are looking for. See also Read International in the UK.
If you are looking for information beyond just books, there is Libraries Without Borders, an international collaboration to help small libraries learn from larger ones. They also have a book resource program.
http://www.librarieswithoutborders.org/
oh i'm very interested in this question. i live in bolivia where there's no public library system like exists in the u.s. we're looking to set up a small library in a town just outside of la paz, the capitol, and i can't help but think of all the practically-new spanish-english books that my old library system in the u.s. used to weed on a regular basis due to space issues.
i believe the org. mentioned by @jdscott50 has recently helped set up a small library in guatemala.. i would love to know where they got their books.
I think you have to make a distinction between books that are no longer needed because they are out of date, as opposed to books that are still of interest to readers.
Most academic libraries usually retain previous editions for some time, as these still have relevant information. There is no point in shipping non-useful books to India, if people in India aren't going to find them useful either. That said, there are libraries that are weeding useful materials, so it is worth making sure that any donations are clearly defined so that time and money is not wasted.
We're in the middle of arranging a donation of older, but still useful, books to a similiar organisation in Africa. The costs of shipping aren't too bad, but it does take a lot of organising to get this done. Smaller exchanges of materials would be easier, and ofcourse, the smaller the mass/volume, the smaller the costs. We're using a shipping container, which allows us to load easily, but are filling this with cardboard boxes-- so we can fit more in and don't have to worry about getting pallets.
These types of donations require support from the top, so that is where the conversation usually has to begin (or be escalated to). Any sort of international conference has usually been our starting point; we gained some exchange agreements via IFLA, and this donation idea was begun at a Pacific conference.
Individual approaches work better than sending generic letters to organisations. Network widely, and recognise that for every 10-20 conversations you may have, only 1 might lead to something. Use a reputable firm for the logistics, and see if you can get a sponsorship to cover the costs of the shipping.
Good luck.