Book crossing by Suzanne Micallef

Parramatta City LibrarySuzanne Micallef

Book Crossing &

Parramatta City Library

Lessons learnt and future potential for Readers Advisory

Lives can be changed through “reading and releasing”

What is Book Crossing?

an innovative attempt to ‘make the whole world a library’

Yahoo.comsetting books free is being likened to a modern-day message in a bottleSan Francisco Chronicle If you love your books, let them go

The New York Times

Quick FactsStarted in 2001 in the USAOver 1.6 million membersOver 9.5 million registered travelling booksSpread over 132 countriesTop 10 Book Crossing Countries

USAGermanyUnited KingdomNetherlandsFinlandCanadaAustraliaFrancePortugalSpain

the books you read and the people you meet

Our Story70 Books were registered to be given to Reading Ambassadors and staff members to ‘release into the wild’

Books were left in cafes, trains, domestic and international airports

12 have been officially ‘caught’, about 19% of those released (62) which is just under the average of 20-25%

Join Parramatta City Library in celebrating Australia’s National Year of Reading 2012 by passing on this free

donated book to friends or by leaving it in a public place.

Track its journey in the Library or online

@ www.parracity.nsw.gov.au

Book Crossing stickers and post –it notes were purchased for display on the front of the book to make

the book more likely to be ‘caught’

Books - What & Where?Donations of books were sought by the public, books could be donated for the Library to release or the Library would register a book for them to release

All types of books, fiction and non fiction, were chosen if they were in good condition – older unappealing books were not registered and found a home in our book sale area

Good quality unwanted Library donations were used

PromotionMedia release in the local newspaper and on the website – explained the scheme and asked for book donations

Bulletin Board posts on the Council Intranet to encourage to both donate books and to take part by releasing a registered book

The Lord Mayor was very enthusiastic about the idea and choose to release a favourite book, ‘The Kraken Wakes’ by John Wyndham

Free book journal widget designed to display recent book activity was placed on the Library website – other widgets and links are also available on the Book Crossing site.

Readers Advisory Potential

Short description of the book, including any awards or reviews

If you liked this book why not try… (read-alikes)

Useful links to RA/Library resourceseg. Fantastic Fiction, Good Reads, Trove, World Cat, MyLanguage, your Library website etc.

Great tool to promote reading and connecting readers worldwide

Increase the profile of your library and of the services and resources provided by Libraries

Journal entries present an ideal opportunity to add value with RA content, ideas include –

Lessons LearntLocal media and Councillors can be helpful in promoting the scheme

Expectations of how many books will be ‘caught’ can be set too high

Getting staff to remember to take a registered book with them on holidays can be difficult

Be more specific about what kind of books should be donated for the scheme

Find volunteers to help contact the books

Overall a fun, worthwhile adventure with the hope of future messages from our travelling books and

we will be continuing to release books into the wild for others to enjoy

Thank You

Suzanne MicallefInformation Access LibrarianParramatta City Library9806 5176smicallef@parracity.nsw.gov.au

Book Crossing – www.bookcrossing.com