Local History

When you want to find a book do you get up from your desk, head for the library and whip out your membership card? Or do you log onto your favourite online retailer and put your new purchase, for work or for pleasure, on plastic?

Distributed Library Project

The Distributed Library Project, a website started by  Burngreave bibliophile Alan Dawson, offers another option for busy readers in the Sheffield area. And unlike the bricks and mortar library, it comes with an inbuilt element of sociability and interaction.

Dawson set up the Burngreave website after hearing about an established site in the San Francisco area, which is run on open-source software produced by an American developer.

Brokering relationships

It is essentially a community site which allows users to not only find books they might like, but also to discover and maybe even meet people who have similar interests.  "The website brokers relationships between people," says Dawson.

To become part of the virtual library, you simply create a free account on the website then list the books and videos that you own and are willing to lend out. You can search for authors or titles, browse other people's collections or use a postcode tool to find books near you. If someone wants to borrow one of your titles, they can ask to check them out for an agreed period.

Catalogue your own collection using the website.

And what if someone dog-ears your copy of Alice in Wonderland? Trust is managed via a feedback and reputation system on the website that will be familiar to Ebay users.

A tool and a community

Cataloguing is a process that will be all too familiar to anyone who's lost a week of their life transferring their music collection to their iPod. But Dawson insists that the Distributed Library Project is a useful tool for keeping track of your books, rather than an onerous task.

"You can just bang in your ISBN numbers and the system will recognise them," says Dawson.

"It's good for people who just want to get stuck in there and cataloguing their own stuff."

Like any community-based site, the possibilities increase as more users join in. At present the site has just 40 registered members as opposed to the San Francisco site's 800. Many of these are individuals, but some groups like Sheffield Community Recycling Action, have listed specialist collections too.

To join the Distributed Library Project and list your books and videos, follow the links on the right.