Barnes & Noble Booksellers & Customers Donate More Than 1.5 Million Books to Children in Need via Annual Holiday Book Drive

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS, the nation's largest retail bookseller and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products, today announced that it collected and donated more than 1.5 million books to more than 650 local charities across the country that provide services to children during its 2015 Holiday Book Drive program.

The donation was made possible through the generous support of Barnes & Noble customers and booksellers who purchased books for donation at Barnes & Noble bookstores nationwide between November 1, 2015, and January 1, 2016. Community partners have already begun distributing the books collected by Barnes & Noble booksellers to hospitals, children's learning and advocacy centers, literacy organizations, and social service organizations.

"Our annual Holiday Book Drive is one of our favorite community relations initiatives," said Sarah DiFrancesco, Vice President, Business Development for Barnes & Noble. "An honored tradition for more than 20 years, our booksellers and stores have partnered with a wonderful array of local charities, that they chose, and donated thousands of books to local children in need. On behalf of Barnes & Noble, I want to thank our customers and booksellers who have reflected the spirit of the generosity. Thanks to their efforts and kindness, millions of children across the country received the gift of reading."

Local recipients of books from the Holiday Book Drive include: St. Jude's Children's Hospital; Toys for Tots; Big Brothers Big Sisters; the YMCA; Salvation Army; First Book; Children's Hospitals from around the nation; Reach Out & Read; Ronald McDonald House; Head Start; United Way Children's Advocacy Center; Texas Boys Ranch; and hundreds of other deserving organizations.

About Barnes & Noble, Inc.

Barnes & Noble, Inc. BKS is a Fortune 500 company, the nation's largest retail bookseller, and a leading retailer of content, digital media and educational products. The Company operates 647 Barnes & Noble bookstores in 50 states, and one of the Web's premier e-commerce sites, BN.com (www.bn.com). The Nook Digital business offers a lineup of popular NOOK^® tablets and eReaders and an expansive collection of digital reading and entertainment content through the NOOK Store^®. The NOOK Store features more than 4 million digital books in the US (www.nook.com) and UK (www.nook.co.uk), plus periodicals, comics, apps, movies and TV shows, and offers the ability to enjoy content across a wide array of popular devices through Free NOOK Reading Apps^™ available for Android^™, iOS^® and Windows^®.

General information on Barnes & Noble, Inc. can be obtained by visiting the Company's corporate website at www.barnesandnobleinc.com.

Barnes & Noble^®, Barnes & Noble Booksellers^® and Barnes & Noble.com^® are trademarks of Barnes & Noble, Inc. or its affiliates. NOOK^® and the NOOK logos are trademarks of Nook Digital, LLC or its affiliates.

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