Community Bookcase: Next Steps
Decatur Metro | March 28, 2010
OK, so I spoke with the city about putting up a “community bookcase” somewhere and they didn’t see any sort of obvious legal hurdles. Obviously I will double-check with them once we come up a specific location, but for now it seems that we can move onto next steps.
As I can see, here are the next two hurdles to overcome: first, we need a location and second we need a bookcase that can withstand the conditions of our desired location if it is outdoors. (ie. does it need doors and be water-resistant?
So, who’s got a location and who has (or wants to construct) a water-proof bookcase?
Need inspiration? Here’s a Facebook album with a couple other examples of German “public bookcases”, including the one to the right.
Latest from Decaturish
How about the lobby of the old courthouse?
Isn’t there a foyer in front of Little Shop of Stories?
How about the space to the left of the Marta station on Church St. where all the benches and newspaper racks used to be?
That wall will have doors and windows in it when Cakes and Ale takes over the space.
How about the loop where the MARTA buses pull in on Swanton Way? There’s a little roof over the pedestrian area.
Not to be a downer, but I don’t get it. Didn’t the city just remove a bunch of newspaper racks because they were in the way of pedestrians or something?
Daren, I like the Old Courthouse idea, though with any indoor location we’d need buy-in from the tenants and/or owners and folks might mistake it as a DeKalb History Center bookcase instead of a public one. Also, it would be more of a destination than something you just came across.
That said, putting it inside solves many problems, including weather and the chance of potential vandalism and there’s no more central location than the old courthouse.
dlb, I think that would be a great location, but we’d need Little Shop’s buy-in, and it’s one thing for them to give their consent – as they did in a previous post – and another to say, “sure, put a free bookcase in front of our store!” (Now, in the back of their store might work…what better way to lure people in than the promise of free books! But again, totally up to them)
A big part of the reason I like that location is that it’s within sight of the Brick Store’s front door. I came to the conclusion that if it was going to be outside that somewhere within sight of BSP would be optimal since that would mean “eyes on the street” at least until 2am.
Stu, I like your thinking…would be a great addition to that wall, but as Steve pointed out that wall is about to change. Plus I’d be a bit more concerned than usual about vandalism since it would be a bit hidden from view.
Parker, that’s definitely an underused space. Do you think it might become to MARTA exclusive that way though? Maybe Quizno’s plaza? That space is totally under-used, PLUS we could then unofficially rename it “Bookcase Square”!
Jenny, that’s exactly what I was thinking when I asked the city first before moving forward. If we decide the best location is on public property, we’ll have to make sure we’re cool before proceeding. But if we find a spot on private property, then we’re cool to do whatever we can agree upon.
What about an old British style telephone box?
http://gadgetsin.com/uploads/2009/12/phone_booth_library_2.JPG
Re bookcase: I don’t have one to donate but I’ll contribute towards one. I’ll bet if you posted an address to which to send contributions towards a bookcase, e.g. $5 apiece, you’d collect enough from the commmunity bookshelf supporters in no time. Or perhaps a local business, e.g. a bookstore, would want to donate one with their logo/iinfo on it.
Karass had an excellent suggestion. I can’t help with the building but I can send money.
Decatur book amnesty here we come! I’ve got enough obsolete software manuals and old copies of the Watchtower to keep this thing so full there won’t be enough room for a single cigarette butt in the community bookcase.
When considering “Next steps,” Where to place the booth/kiosk is a great question. As long as we are planning ahead, let’s consider: Who will come in with the Windex to clean the glass? Who will wipe the grime off the shelves? If it is vandalized, who is volunteering to repaint?
My guess is that, if it actually takes off as a concept, one or two compulsive patrons will take it upon themselves to do it. At the pool community bookshelf that I patronize, I periodically get frustrated with how messy it’s gotten and then take 15-20 minutes to straighten up the books and separate out the kids books vs adult books vs magazines. Ditto for the lost and found. Periodically someone else does it.
If no one ends up caring, then the bookshelf will fall into disrepair and will have to be removed.
If the concept REALLY takes off and becomes multiple bookshelves at multiple spots around the city, then I suspect that someone like the City or DBA or a civic group or a church group will have to organize upkeep and volunteers.
I think having one in Oakhurst would be a good idea. Somewhere around Harmony Park. There is always a steady stream of pedestrian traffic around that area. I know this might not be everyone’s first choice but perhaps as a second location if the first one is successful.
Maggie has a good point.
Why not? Between multiple CSD schools per family, church, playdates, sports, classes, friends, shopping, and restaurants and coffee places, most of us hit all parts of Decatur over the course of a week. So any location to start is probably going to work if the concept is really as hot as this blog seems to indicate. If the pilot concept works and folks want a shelf in another area, then why not that too?!
We already have a public bookcase. It’s called a library.
Indeed. But with that train of thought it’s hard to explain why or how this idea originally came out of a post on the DeKalb Library’s blog.
Must be something other than publicly available books which makes it attractive to people.
And I recall a librarian commenting on here that the library is actually a good location for the bookcase! The front foyer would work great for a future additional site.
(Looks like Decatur is on its way to becoming “The City of Community Bookcases!” )
A library is a formal system of borrowing and returning books from a government entity. A community bookshelf is informal swapping, kind of like coupon swapping.
Don’t hate me, but I still don’t understand the purpose of this.
How about this? Let’s ask Decatur businesses whether they’d be interested in sponsoring a community bookshelf. The idea is to put books in circulation. Then, we could highlight them as Decatur Community Bookshelf locations, sponsors, etc.
We provide the bookshelf, we come up with some guidelines, etc.
I really think this needs to be indoors. Books would mildew if left outside for long periods of time in our humidity.
What’s the purpose of this? To promote reading, our love of the printed page, to provide free reading material to a public that seems to lack an interest in books. I read somwhere that the majority of homes (in Georgia, in the U.S.) have NO books. None!!!
How about a book swap flashmob?
What’s a flashmob?
She asked, and then looked it up.
A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.
Our gathering would not be pointless. And how would we reach the unbooked?
Forgot to respond to this earlier Cat, but that’s a freakin’ great idea.
Now this is a cool idea.
Leftovers could go to the public library. The unwanted will be lovingly accepted, organized so they are findable by future seekers, and protected from the elements. No one has to figure out guidelines, or funding, or who’s responsible for broken doors, or what space on sidewalks or foyers or other public areas we are willing to give up.
Let’s go for it.
this is a quaint idea, but like others i don’t see the point in doing it. maybe if this were in a location where people were regularly standing and waiting (marta, eg) it would be useful
I think the point is to enable people in the community who love books and want to share their books with other community members/Decaturites. This is (to me) like asking “what’s the point of the Oakhurst garden?” There’s a long list of why it’s a good thing but a biggie is that it makes people feel good and connected to their community (both its people and literally the place they live in).
I agree that you need a permanent location to make this work. You could set up a table at the farmer’s market or at the book festival and have a book swap but chances are you’ll end up with a bunch of books and then what? At some point this becomes a project/labor of love and you need someone to be in charge.
These folks have given some thoughts to what to do with books you no longer need http://for.theloveofbooks.com/2009/03/donate-books/
Re the point of a community bookshelf: Exactly. It’s equivalent to recipe swapping or chuch consignment sales. It’s the desire to share, connect, and not let treasured items go to waste.