The TARGET:
Everyone, and especially every young reader, has easy access to all the real books they could ever want to read at no cost to the reader (publicly funded).
The PROPOSAL:
1) Public library collections are vastly enlarged by an “invisible community library” collection made of up individual TinyCat libraries (TLs) voluntarily made available to the public library by the TL owners who can designate some or all of the books in their TL collection as being available for lending by the main public library.
2) When a TL owner makes a book available for lending in the public library system, it appears in the public library catalog with TL as the location, but it otherwise is handled normally by the PL catalog system.
3) To borrow a book made available by a TL owner, the borrower clicks on the book and completes their normal borrowing — their preferred pickup point is already entered into their profile on the PL system.
4) The TL owner gets a message (email or text, user-selected preference) that the book has been requested; the TL owner drops it off with the PL system through their preferred interface point (nearest branch or kiosk or book drop point) and the system “sees” the book through a barcode reader.
5) The PL system routes the book to the borrower’s chosen pickup point just as any other book.
6) The borrower returns the book to the public library just like always through whatever drop-off system the PL uses.
7) When the book is returned, if there are no other requests for it, it is returned to the TL owner; if there are other requests, it goes to fill those requests.
THE EXPANDED PROPOSAL
8) The public library works to establish book drop-off and pickup points throughout the community so that all residents have one within walking distance of their homes. These can be in cafes, diners, grocery stores, malls, public and private offices, schools, community centers, restaurants, etc.
9) Most importantly, the public transit system is a “floating” drop-off location — anyone wanting to put a book “into” the system from a TL or return a book can simply drop it into the box on every public bus. Each day, when the box is full, the drop-off box is swapped for a replacement at any fixed drop-off location or at the transit center. The PL system has an arrangement to collect books at the transit center daily.
10) So there is a wide network of fixed pick-up points throughout the community where people can get their books, even if they are unable to get to a library; and books can be put into or returned into the system at any of these pickup points but also on any public bus.
THE RESULT:
Everyone, and especially every young reader, has easy access to all the real books they could ever want to read at no cost to the reader and at very low cost to the public library and transit systems.
OOOO
AND HOW ONE GUY DOES IT IN ITALY
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