Things to Consider for the New Year

So, I decided to become a little more dedicated to learning and exploring the library as well as bringing more information into one space to share with others. We are already 3 months into the new year. Instead of stating what to do right off the bat, I like to give the new year time to settle in and see what it decides to do. The big themes this year are: going green, creating change and impacting lives on the small scale.


Making a world of difference: Book Style!

So you want to buy a book. You really, really want to buy a book. Maybe because your local library doesn't have it or you love it so much you want it for your own book shelf. So what do you do? Here's a few websites that allow you to get books and build up some good karma in the process:

Better World Books: New and Used books for bargain prices! They have a good selection of books to purchase all with free shipping in the US or $3.97 worldwide. Some of their prices may not beat amazon.com but the free shipping alone makes it worthwhile if you plan on just buying one or two books or not meeting amazon's free-shipping requirements. Plus, they use carbonfund.org to create a carbon neutral business. What else do they do? Well, you can sell them your used books and make a buck or donate your books to them to help contribute towards literacy goals. They give back to the community through contributions to several literacy organizations. And if that isn't enough, they create a community effort by focusing on book drives and partnering with libraries to collect unwanted and discarded books that are then donated to literacy organizations. Really this is the prototype for a new business model, not just meeting your customers wants but also create a way to fill the needs of a larger society.


Bookcrossing: Go hunting for books! A take off of Where's George?, this site is designed for someone to track books that they "released into the wild". It's interesting to see how far books travel from their original homes and who reads them. The downside is that if this isn't popular in your area, you really can't go hunting for books. On the upside, there's forums that allow members to create reading rings, rays and boxes: basically a controlled list of who'll get a certain book next and who they need to send it on to when they finished reading it.


BookMooch: Make available books that you don't want and trade for books that you do! It works off a point system. To do this you add books to the site that you want to get rid of. Each book is worth so many points. When you have enough points you can request books from other users. The more books you add to the site and send off, the more points you get. Each request for a book you make subtracts points from you total. All in all, you are still getting books for the amount of shipping them to their new destination. You can build wishlists and have alerts sent to you as books you want become available. It seems a lot of people use this site in conjunction with Bookcrossing. First you add it to Bookcrossing and get its BCID; then you "release" it to Bookmooch. It helps save you from buying books and costs as much as shipping the book to its new home.


Paperback Swap: Another site that allows you too trade books and get books for nothing more than postage. This site also has links to its sister-sites of DVD swap and CD swap. I personally haven't used it, but the site seems intriguing and a good way for individuals to get books they want.


The main downside to some of these websites is that when you ship your book out or have a book shipped to you, you are relying on it getting where it belongs without any mishaps. A lot of these websites work on the honor system, and have safeguards in place should users abuse the site. But it is still a "buyer beware" mentality. Nothing is perfect and you have to be willing to accept the risks inherent with using the internet. However, many of these sites are driven by individuals who love books and reading and want to spread that love to others.