Supporting Access through Little Libraries and Library Box

Just a quick mention of two services that bring the library out of the walls and into the neighborhoods. One is Little Free Library where you build a little box on a post, put some books in it and then invite people to take a book and leave a book or read and return.

I read about Library Box in the August 2013 issue of Library Journal. This one is a small router that comes with a USB drive preloaded with free (in the public domain) content. The router allows the patron to download the content of their choice to a wifi accessible device. This is for those areas where people may not have access to wifi, but still want to read a copy of Emma by Jane Austen or the Jungle Book by Kipling. Or maybe the person may not know s/he can visit the Gutenberg project and download a book for free, or maybe there's just too many options and this little bad boy makes the choices easier. Check out the kickstarter campaign for Library Box to see what are the latest developments for the project.

Gearing Up for the Final Burn

January 9th begins my final quarter in grad school and in preparation I am, of course, reading the required texts ahead of time. These include

Casey, M., & Savastinuk, L., (2007). Library 2.0 A Guide to Participatory Library Service. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc.

Solomon, L. (2010). Doing social media so it matters : a librarian's guide. Chicago : American Library Association.

Haven't started the second book yet and am just in the middle part of the first, but I'm in the "Participatory Service and the Long Tail" section (finally!, ch. 5) and I've a few thoughts forming that I'd like to capture.

Casey & Savastinuk define Library 2.0 as a responsive library which purposively plans for change. (Chapter 1-4 prep libraries for being a purposive changer, but this isn't a review of the book.) In ch 5, they give an example about serving the long tail of user needs for unique, non-popular materials by purchasing a used book on Amazon instead of requesting it via ILL. They then turn to discussing addressing the long tail of information services and how it can be addressed through Library 2.0 and participatory service.


I've been thinking about services like PaperBack Swap and BookMooch which connect book owners who have book, but no longer need them to people looking for books. These two sites promote free lending, with the lender paying the postage costs and a requirement to lend books in order to receive books. What I think is great about these services is that it also connects people to materials which reside in the long tail and I can't help but picture a version of that with libraries and their local community. Where people's homes play the part of the storage of the materials and when someone requires a book, the book is returned and picked up at the library, only to reside in the new person's home until it is requested again. In this way, storage costs are spread out among the people in the library community and library service of materials becomes participatory in a different way.

Radical? possibly. A logistical nightmare? it seems to be working on the book lending networks. Taking control away from the library and putting it in the community's hands? Definitely.