We've had a community library at Cowork Frederick from day one (over four years ago).
It's grown slowly over the years and now has a really nice diverse range of topics. It gets minimal use, but many people like the idea that we do this, so we do. If nothing else, it helps reinforce a culture of sharing. Nothing should go on in the shared library that members are not willing to share and accept the risks that come with that. Our books have been used as monitor stands and that's OK with us. At least they're getting used. A recent caterer even used a bunch of them to create varied heights for platters of food. It looked really cool. Our bookshelf isn't full yet, but when it is our method for culling out books will be to pick a week when we give members 10 little stickers they can put on the books they want us to keep. Any books without stickers on them after that week will be donated to the public library, who will either use them or recycle them as they see fit, or could be used for some other creative purpose. If we ever do the expansion I long to do, I've contemplated creating quiet/phone rooms using books like bricks. I've also thought about decorating a wall with a collage of book covers. So many things can be done with these great assets. As a side note, we also have a community office supply that has a take some leave some rule that has members keeping the community stocked on office supplies (we buy paper and printer cartridges, but that's about it). It has, at times, become a dumping ground for odd stuff. We just freecycle what sits around for a long time without getting used. Julia On Tuesday, November 29, 2016 at 11:29:56 AM UTC-5, Tyler Byrd wrote: > > I'm thinking about adding a community library to our space. Specifically 5 > or 6 book cases full. If you've done something similar I've got a couple > questions for you. > > > 1. Do you find it get's much use? > 2. How to you track books and who has them? Software? > 3. Anything else I should know? > > Thanks! > -- Visit this forum on the web at http://discuss.coworking.com --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Coworking" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
