IBB was established in 1987 with the purpose of procuring new and used books from US publishers, dealers and school systems for donation to needy and developing countries throughout the world. IBB procures and ships educational materials directly to overseas recipients as well as on behalf of other book-sending agencies. IBB has affiliations with the Canadian Organization for Development through Education (CODE) and with the National Association of College Stores (NACS). Through NACS, a wide array of postsecondary materials has become available.

Responsiveness to recipients' needs and requests is the basis of the IBB pro gram. As a general rule, no educational materials are shipped to recipients unless they have been previously selected from carefully prepared annotated booklists. Before titles are placed on a booklist, they are carefully screened for content and physical condition. Most often, books are shipped in sea containers (consisting of up to 20,000 volumes) to local distributing agencies. Such agencies are responsible for receiving, storing, sorting, allocating and monitoring the shipment.

Funding must be available in order for IBB to recover its costs associated with the procurement, processing, packing and shipping of the books, before books can be sent overseas.

Materials offered: new books, remaindered books, used books.