24 Sep, 2009
Be the change (subtitled: A Westboro book drive!)
Posted by andrea tomkins in: - Westboro|Yaktivism
It started with a tweet by @conniecrosby.
RT @booksin140 Just stumbled across this community bookcase thanks to @suziegardner. Amazing: http://ow.ly/pySN
OF COURSE I had to see what was so amazing. It was this post about a community bookcase. In case you’re not clicking through I shall summarize.
- There’s a shelf.
- In a public area.
- It has books.
- People borrow books.
- People leave books.
- People read books.
Simple, isn’t it? And then I immediately wondered why we don’t have one in our neighborhood.
Think of the benefits of the community bookcase!
- It’s free.
- It encourages literacy.
- It is community-minded.
- It provides reading material to people of all ages.
- There’s no library cards, overdue fines, or rushing to make timely returns. (!)
Inspired, I fired off an email to John Rapp, ED of Dovercourt Recreation Centre, and asked him what he thought about it and whether there’d be room for something in the upstairs “lounge” area at Dovercourt. It’d be the perfect place; an accessible, high traffic area which is used by people of all ages and from all walks of life.
Within an hour I got my reply. He’d get a shelf but I had to supply the books.
John has kindly held up his end of the bargain (THANK YOU!) and so now I’ve spearheaded a book drive.
This is what the bookcase looked like yesterday:
It looks a little empty, doesn’t it?
Here’s a close-up:
If you live in the Westboro area please consider donating some of your gently used books. We’re looking for English and French books for all ages and reading levels in decent condition.
(Confession: I’m slightly worried that some people will donate books that aren’t exactly readable i.e. their university textbooks and WordPerfect 2.0 for Dummies. Wondering if what you’re donating is readable? Ask yourself if YOU would pick up this book and devote time reading it. Do you think other people will too? If so, donate. If not, use it for kindling.)
To summarize: Donations are welcome, but please don’t use this as an opportunity to unload your collection of National Geographics dating back to 1968.
If we get too many books (I’m thinking big, aren’t I?) I’d bring the overflow to Neighborhood Services (after we keep a few back to restock empty shelves of course).
The actual process of book borrowing would be rather informal and relies heavily on the honour system. People would be free to borrow any book (or any number of books) and take them home for any length of time. I also hope that people will exchange one book for another. I think it’ll balance out okay.
We’ll also need a few volunteers to keep the books in good order – sorting them and weeding out the ones that are falling apart etc. If you’re ever hanging out in the lounge waiting for your children’s swim/ballet/pottery class to end YOU’D BE PERFECT FOR THIS JOB.
I’d also love to have an informal sign out book so we know if the bookcase is getting use. That’ll be step two.
But first we need books. What do you say Westboro? Can you help? If you can’t part with your books please consider helping by spreading the word. Besides, good karma comes to those who answer THE ASK. ;)
Addendum: Many Fishbowl readers live outside the Ottawa area. Would you consider taking on the same kind of project at your local community centre? For a very small bit of effort this kind of thing sure does a lot of good. Let me know if you undertake something like this where you live!
