The box your library's year starts with. Eight deliveries of brand-new releases, chosen and packed by retired educators, and you see every one before we pack it.
| What's in it | Brand-new releases, chosen at our buying day. The number varies with RRP, usually eight to eleven a box. Fiction, non-fiction and picture books for your level. |
|---|---|
| The discount | 25% off RRP, already in the price. We know what school budgets look like. Discounting the boxes is our own contribution to the number of books in your library — $1,200 buys $1,600 of them. |
| When it arrives | Eight deliveries. You start with the next pack run, whenever in the year that is, and your eight run from there. Free delivery on every one. |
| Who chooses | Janine, Maris and Shelley, plus guest pickers. Retired teachers and school library staff in supported work. |
| Your control | The list is emailed two weeks before each pack day. Anything you don't want doesn't go in. Replying is optional. |
| Duplicates | Keep it, put it in a classroom, and we send a replacement free. Four or more in one box is our failure: send them back on our postage and pick your own. |
| Paying | One purchase order at signup. One invoice, after the trial window closes. Net 30. No credit notes, no part-invoices. |
| Stopping | Eight boxes a year, continuing year to year. Stop anytime. |
| Signing up | Four fields. Nothing to export, nothing to prepare. We confirm within one working day. |
The Box is your new releases — eight deliveries, handled.
The rest of the year’s budget stays yours: series top-ups, term topic sets, replacement copies, other standing orders. Order those the way you always have — hopefully some of it from us, but we are not here to win all of your business.
If you have another subscription and suppliers you like working with, keep them. The best library collections are built from a lot of places, not one.
| The Box | Ordering new releases as you go | |
|---|---|---|
| Setting it up | One minute, four fields | Catalogues, quotes, order forms |
| Who chooses | People who did your job, and you | Reading the catalogues yourself |
| New releases | Eight times a year as they land | Whenever the next order goes in |
| Paperwork | One PO, one invoice | A PO and an invoice per order |
| If it's already on the shelf | Keep it, we replace it | Returns and credit notes |
| Delivery | Free on every box | Charged, or over a minimum |
| Where the money goes | Retired educators in supported work | Depends who you buy from |
Chosen by some or all of the Vipa team, along with guest librarians and authors who join our buying days.
We put as much effort into finding sponsors as we do into choosing books. Individuals, businesses and community organisations pay for a school's Box outright.
When we find one, the next school in line has their Box covered — in the order schools signed up. If that's you, the year's books cost you nothing, and your library budget goes further than it did.
We can't promise it will be your school. We can promise we're working on it. That's the aim: more books in more school libraries.
Vipa exists to keep retired teachers and school library staff doing the thing they're brilliant at. The books are how we do it.
When your box arrives, it was chosen by people who spent forty years in rooms like yours, and packed the same morning by the same hands. Your order is what keeps them there.
We're not asking you to drop it. We want to be where your year starts. Take our box first, top up with them.
Start whenever suits you. Your eight boxes run from your first one, not from February, and the invoice comes after that first box arrives.
You still do. You see every box two weeks before it's packed, and anything you don't want doesn't go in.
Keep it, put it in a classroom, and we send a replacement free. Four or more and that's our failure: send them back on our postage and pick your own.
One email a month, and replying is optional. Four fields to sign up.
Tell us and we stop. Anytime.
One minute, from your phone. We confirm within one working day, and you'll see your first list before anything ships.