FAQs

What does DUC stand for?
Distribution to Underserved Communities.

Are these books really free?
Yes. Every book, including its shipping, is absolutely free to public libraries and schools. All materials offered by the DUC are donated to the program by their publishers, and we, in turn, send it to your library at no charge.

Is my library eligible to order free books?
Public schools, libraries, and community centers within the U.S. that are located in either rural or inner-city communities are eligible to receive free materials from the DUC.

What kind of materials are available from the DUC?
The DUC offers books, educational guides, posters, videos, CDs, DVDs and interactive materials about contemporary art, architecture, art history and cultural issues from museums, publishers and individual artists and writers. For public schools and libraries in NY State, we also offer contemporary literature and poetry from NY based indepedent publishers. POULIN PROJECT.

How do I order free materials for my library?
Simply choose the books that best suit the needs of your library's patrons, fill out an order form with the corresponding informaiton and mail or fax it to us. You can find more details on our HOW TO ORDER page.

How often should I order materials for my library?
To ensure the timely processing of orders, we encourage you to carefully look over the available inventory and place one order a year.

How are books sent to my library?
Your order of free books will be sent directly to your library via FedEx Ground. Please note, FedEx requires the recipient's telephone number to deliver and will not deliver to a P.O. Box. Libraries not in the contiguous 48 states will receive their books via the US Postal Service. These books ship at library rate, so please be patient.

Once I place my order, how long will it take for books to arrive?
The DUC is a small nonprofit serving thousands of libraries. We make every effort to fill orders promptly, but it may take as long as eight to twelve weeks for your order to be processed and delivered. We thank you for your patience.

When will the DUC get more new books?
Each year we gather hundreds of new titles, which are available online each spring. We notify all our libraries, via an email and/or a postcard, when the new inventory is posted.

More questions?
We will be glad to help in any way we can, please call us at 212 255-2919

DUC History

Art Resources Transfer, Inc. (A.R.T.) began as a nonprofit publisher of books based on conversations between artists, under the aegis of A.R.T. Press. Looking to find ways to expand distribution to public libraries in Los Angeles, A.R.T. Press offered its books for free to local libraries. It found out that libraries couldn't accept the offer of free books because they couldn't afford the shipping costs.

After years of budget cuts, the majority of our nation's public libraries and schools have no contemporary art resources to offer their patrons. Exhibition catalogues, monographs, and artists' books with color reproductions are too expensive for declining acquisitions budgets. In response to this critical lack of art books in our nation's public schools and libraries, A.R.T. created the DUC Library Program in 1990, which provides free books on the visual arts and covers the cost of shipping.

With a grant from The George Gund Foundation, the DUC was launched as a pilot program in nine libraries in Ohio. More than 16 years and thousands of libraries later, the DUC is still working to help libraries build comprehensive collections of contemporary art materials in areas where access to museums and other cultural institutions is limited.