If there are any questions you can email them. They understand that many books do not contain barcodes or isbns. I have an elderly friend who was a slavic anthropologist. We've been in contact with them for months and have sent off something like 20 boxes of mid-century cultural academic literature focusing on hungary and other regions (I'm no expert there ... sorry if I got some term wrong).
As far as what to donate that you probably have? Magazines. 2600, Usenix journal, make, wired, datamation, byte, creative computing, etc. You'd be surprised how many holes they have. You'll see like 18 complete months then a 10 month hole, then like 7 more complete months, etc ... it's far from done.
It's valuable. For instance, the high flying pollyana nonsense of 90s wired magazines is probably embarrassing to read now but it's also a very important cultural context for historians and academics - imagine a 25 year old phd student of say, science&technology studies, trying to get a grasp on ~1998 silicon valley culture. I was there, they weren't - these old rags are important to preserve.
I have much more faith in the ability of paper books to maintain an archive of knowledge and experience, than an ever-expanding digital warehouse that is reliant on charitable donations.
Pro tip: you can send books media mail via the US Postal Service at a reduced cost.
They can be retrieved, though not especially speedily.
"Internet Archive founder turns to new information storage device – the book" (2012)
"There is always going to be a role for books," said Kahle, as he perched on the edge of a shipping container soon to be tricked out as a climate-controlled storage unit. Each container can hold about 40,000 volumes, the size of a branch library. "We want to see books live forever."
So far, Kahle has gathered about 500,000 books. He thinks the warehouse itself is large enough to hold about a million titles, with each one given a barcode that identifies the cardboard box, pallet and shipping container in which it resides....
* If someone does need to see an actual physical copy of a book, Kahle said it should take no more than an hour to fetch it....*
<https://www.theguardian.com/books/2011/aug/01/internet-archi...>
I didn't find that on a quick web search -- do you have a link?
I was once reading 'Rhetoric' by Aristotle on the site and noticed a lot of marginalia. Some of it was pretty good commentary too.
Well, it turns out that I was reading John Adam's copy with all his notes.
I wish they had a better method of recording all these gems that they have. They might and I'm just lazy.
(And, yes, I've tried to find the link, but unfortunately I need more coffee. If someone can find it, please post it)
2. Search for your book on https://archive.org/
3. If you do not find it, put it in box.
4. Repeat 2 & 3 as much as desired.
5. Take box and follow instructions: https://help.archive.org/help/how-do-i-make-a-physical-donat...