Building bookshares

With libraries in trouble, why not look to your neighbours' shelves for books to read?

In London, there’s a lot of controversy about the future role of libraries. In a world of the internet and Amazon, what is the function of some stuffy encyclopedias and Dan Brown novels? Funding is being cut and many branches are being closed.

So libraries will have to move beyond books. The more successful libraries are focusing on book clubs, running classes and events, letting community events in and providing free access to the internet (like Peckham Library has, above).

So if libraries won’t supply you with the latest Barbara Cartland, what will? There’s a niche for a community facility that helps readers branch out and find new authors, but without having to pay for them.

Books are already something that are shared between friends and neighbours - but who has what? NESTA, the UK’s innovation organisation, are trying to solve that problem. They’re piloting Bookshare, a tool that helps you find and share books with people in your area, school or organisation in Sutton, a South London suburb.

This video shows how it’s done.

What is Bookshare? from NESTA UK on Vimeo.

The idea is that by piloting community book sharing you are helping people get to know each other and tackling isolation. The code is open source and links up with Google Books, fairly straightforwardly, to help people produce their own catalogue.

But will this take the place of our libraries? Not really. First, you need the internet to access it, which excludes many of those who use a public library at the moment. Second, there won’t be the range of books that a library provides, although their will be more esoterica, there won't be many encyclopedias, for instance. And finally, you won’t have the physical space to meet and pick up books that a library provides. To pick up a book, you’re more likely to have to meet in a neutral, third party venue like a cafe. This might be too much of a hassle for most people