www.bookcrossing.com

Our featured website this month is a site that offers readers a place to register and review a book, then leave it in a public place for another reader to find, read, visit the site and leave their own comment before ‘releasing’ the book into the wild once more. Readers track their ‘releases’ and talk about their reading on site.

What is it for?

If you want to know what a library service devised by an anarchist would be like, well here it is.

It’s not very clear what this is about when you first arrive. Very wordy, lots of information greets you straightaway. You can’t tell what it’s about in three seconds, but it probably intrigues you enough in that time for you to rummage around a bit. You might have been searching for readers or books and arrived here, but a lot of people on site seem to have heard about the site from friends or on the net or tipped in the media.

Who is it for?

Readers who love to share books, but also those people who believe that the internet is there to create strong networks that cross geographical boundaries. The site is only about readers and reading and nothing at all to do with commerce or product. It takes time to explain to publishers and bookshops how sharing books eventually increases sales. This is an argument that libraries use.

Voice

The site has a very clear character. It has a definite American accent and is based firmly in the best libertarian and open-minded traditions of that country. It speaks to readers who feel that their life is too individualistic, that they over-buy and want to talk to other readers but can’t get to meet any. The approach of the site is completely consistent. A well-meaning, haphazard, anarchistic, fresh approach that provides a tool for readers to adapt for themselves. It’s wordy and over complicated – enthusiasm pours out of it.

Design

The design of the pages is haphazard and the layout is confused and busy. You need persistence and time to discover how to take part.

Navigation is quite hard; it's easy to find your way back to Home, but the pages are a maze. When you do find your way into the sections, the material is interesting and has potential.

Incentives

The message board and discussions are wide-ranging and mostly lucid. The invitation to join a community of readers and the concept of releasing books ‘into the wild’, and tracking them down is one with a wide appeal across all age ranges and types of reader.

You have to register and choose a password. The site is jokey and polite if you forget it. Immediately after you join you get a personal e-mail from the webmaster, and if you reply to him he responds to that very quickly. There are a large number of users involved and the site is currently very busy with readers from all over the world.

In the Library

Is this an alternative solution to the sale table?