i'm thinking of starting a book trade

[hobish]

I'm thinking of starting a book trade at my building. I'd like to set up a few shelves where people could drop off books they've finished & pick up something new to read. The system i was hoping for would work mainly on the honor system ... i.e. don't just drop off a box of moldy books from your basement & don't take home a shopping bag full unless you really are going to read them. Some quality control would be needed, of course.

My building consists of 3 floors of 70  - 120 people per floor who all work for basically the same company, although most of us do not interact. We recently lost our cafeteria, so part of the lunch room can probably be used now that people go elsewhere. The company is in a bit of a morale slump because of loss of business in our area & a "voluntary layoff" period. The cost should be pretty low to the company. I'm sure they've got extra shelving laying around somewhere & if not, finding some would be pretty easy.
I am so bored with my job that pulling something together like this would be kind of fun. Since i don't drive i am normally at work 1 hour before i need to log in.

Those are the good ideas for the book trade i am thinking about.

The bad ones are:

I have no idea how to head up a project. I am not sure exactly how to present it to HR, and i am a bit afraid of HR. I am pretty disorganized. I have a tendency to get myself in over my head. Although i am bored with my job, there are a certain amount of items we are supposed to do per hour & i generally fall just short.

Another good thing is that our company has been looking for ideas from employees that will help them make a couple extra billion dollars in the next year; another bad thing is that this is the sort of grassroots thing that has no definite economic advantage for them, but it might make the employees a little less likely to hate coming to work ( i hope )

...any thoughts, ideas, or advice would be more than welcome.

edied for typo

Thanks e-hellions.

[hollasa]

I'm thinking of starting a book trade at my building. I'd like to set up a few shelves where people could drop off books they've finished & pick up something new to read. The system i was hoping for would work mainly on the honor system ... i.e. don't just drop off a box of moldy books from your basement & don't take home a shopping bag full unless you really are going to read them. Some quality control would be needed, of course.

Have you thought of making it a Book Crossing drop off site?

http://www.bookcrossing.com/promote

Sounds like a great idea!

[Bijou]

I'm thinking of starting a book trade at my building. I'd like to set up a few shelves where people could drop off books they've finished & pick up something new to read. The system i was hoping for would work mainly on the honor system ... i.e. don't just drop off a box of moldy books from your basement & don't take home a shopping bag full unless you really are going to read them. Some quality control would be needed, of course.

My building consists of 3 floors of 70  - 120 people per floor who all work for basically the same company, although most of us do not interact. We recently lost our cafeteria, so part of the lunch room can probably be used now that people go elsewhere. The company is in a bit of a morale slump because of loss of business in our area & a "voluntary layoff" period. The cost should be pretty low to the company. I'm sure they've got extra shelving laying around somewhere & if not, finding some would be pretty easy.
I am so bored with my job that pulling something together like this would be kind of fun. Since i don't drive i am normally at work 1 hour before i need to log in.

Those are the good ideas for the book trade i am thinking about.

The bad ones are:

I have no idea how to head up a project. I am not sure exactly how to present it to HR, and i am a bit afraid of HR. I am pretty disorganized. I have a tendency to get myself in over my head. Although i am bored with my job, there are a certain amount of items we are supposed to do per hour & i generally fall just short.

Another good thing is that our company has been looking for ideas from employees that will help them make a couple extra billion dollars in the next year; another bad thing is that this is the sort of grassroots thing that has no definite economic advantage for them, but it might make the employees a little less likely to hate coming to work ( i hope )

...any thoughts, ideas, or advice would be more than welcome.

edied for typo

Thanks e-hellions.

We set up an "honor library" where I used to work.  We found a shelf we could use (it was an old bookcase that was just being stored) and everyone  brought in books they wanted to donate.  They would fill out an index card for each book and put it into the book which was stored on the shelf.  (They included their initials on the card in the event the book was eventually weeded out, so they could reclaim it if they wanted to).  A borrower would sign the card and put it in the little box we had for that purpose (set up alphabetically).  When they returned the book to the shelf they would return the card to the book.  We'd had this library for at least ten years when I left the job and as far as I know it still is going on.  People loved it and used it constantly.  No one policed it.  If someone kept a book for an extended time no one cared.  I can even see not using the cards, but just treating it as a lending library where people borrow and return books.  It really was a success.

[beakiebean]

I think it's a great idea! We used to have a magazine pile in our break room where after you read a magazine you could leave it in the pile for someone else to enjoy. Once a magazine was about 6 months old we'd pitch it so the pile didn't get too big.

I think a book trade or lending library would be fun and would boost morale. Employers tend to forget what a difference happy motivated people who like coming to work can have on the bottom line.

[Lauren]

I think its a good idea, but I honsetly would never leave books there. I'm very possessive of my books and while I don't have hard and fast rules (I do dog ear which for some people is the end of the world) I HAAAATE giving my books to others. They don't come back!

[minnaloushe]

We have one here, but it's always been here, so I asked one of the "old-timers" how it got started.
Apparently someone was moving and didn't want to ship two boxes of older books.  They left them in the lunch room bookcase with a sign saying "Free to a good home" which later became "The Lending Library - Take a book, leave a book".  There are always an interesting assortment of titles available.
As far as I know, no one has ever left a box of moldy books. If they did, they were most likely just thrown straight in the trash.

It's a nice gesture, I hope your coworkers appreciate it.

[hobish]

I'm thinking of starting a book trade at my building. I'd like to set up a few shelves where people could drop off books they've finished & pick up something new to read. The system i was hoping for would work mainly on the honor system ... i.e. don't just drop off a box of moldy books from your basement & don't take home a shopping bag full unless you really are going to read them. Some quality control would be needed, of course.

Have you thought of making it a Book Crossing drop off site?

http://www.bookcrossing.com/promote

Sounds like a great idea!

An official Book Crossing site would be a little more than i would want to take on right away, but that's a great idea.

[hobish]

I'm thinking of starting a book trade at my building. I'd like to set up a few shelves where people could drop off books they've finished & pick up something new to read. The system i was hoping for would work mainly on the honor system ... i.e. don't just drop off a box of moldy books from your basement & don't take home a shopping bag full unless you really are going to read them. Some quality control would be needed, of course.

My building consists of 3 floors of 70  - 120 people per floor who all work for basically the same company, although most of us do not interact. We recently lost our cafeteria, so part of the lunch room can probably be used now that people go elsewhere. The company is in a bit of a morale slump because of loss of business in our area & a "voluntary layoff" period. The cost should be pretty low to the company. I'm sure they've got extra shelving laying around somewhere & if not, finding some would be pretty easy.
I am so bored with my job that pulling something together like this would be kind of fun. Since i don't drive i am normally at work 1 hour before i need to log in.

Those are the good ideas for the book trade i am thinking about.

The bad ones are:

I have no idea how to head up a project. I am not sure exactly how to present it to HR, and i am a bit afraid of HR. I am pretty disorganized. I have a tendency to get myself in over my head. Although i am bored with my job, there are a certain amount of items we are supposed to do per hour & i generally fall just short.

Another good thing is that our company has been looking for ideas from employees that will help them make a couple extra billion dollars in the next year; another bad thing is that this is the sort of grassroots thing that has no definite economic advantage for them, but it might make the employees a little less likely to hate coming to work ( i hope )

...any thoughts, ideas, or advice would be more than welcome.

edied for typo

Thanks e-hellions.

We set up an "honor library" where I used to work.  We found a shelf we could use (it was an old bookcase that was just being stored) and everyone  brought in books they wanted to donate.  They would fill out an index card for each book and put it into the book which was stored on the shelf.  (They included their initials on the card in the event the book was eventually weeded out, so they could reclaim it if they wanted to).  A borrower would sign the card and put it in the little box we had for that purpose (set up alphabetically).  When they returned the book to the shelf they would return the card to the book.  We'd had this library for at least ten years when I left the job and as far as I know it still is going on.  People loved it and used it constantly.  No one policed it.  If someone kept a book for an extended time no one cared.  I can even see not using the cards, but just treating it as a lending library where people borrow and return books.  It really was a success.

That's the situation i have in my head. I think the honor system would work out well. I hadn't thought of using cards or keeping track of the books.
The idea reminds me of taking books out of the school or public library & looking at the names of the people who had borrowed it before you, before everything was scanned by computer. The worst i can think of happening is someone stealing a book from the free library. I'm not even going to try suggesting that people will get their boks back, though.

Thank you for the suggestion. It's definitely great to hear it was there for so long!!

[hobish]

Employers tend to forget what a difference happy motivated people who like coming to work can have on the bottom line.

Luckily i work for an company that is starting to regain that idea, or else i wouldn't even be thinking of starting the little library.

That is definitely true. When i first started working for this company i left the job i had to work for this place just because they had a great reputation for treating their empoyees well - not so much monetarily, but in the day to day atmosphere. It hasn't been like that for a while now, but that concept is coming back.

Thank goodness.

[hobish]

I think its a good idea, but I honsetly would never leave books there. I'm very possessive of my books and while I don't have hard and fast rules (I do dog ear which for some people is the end of the world) I HAAAATE giving my books to others. They don't come back!

But would you leave a book or two you wouldn't mind not getting back in return for one you would like to read & wouldn't have to give back?
That is what will keep the book trade going, i think.

There are lots of books i have that i won't lend to people even if they ask, but there are some i have that i won't read again & would gladly trade for something else.

[hobish]

I really wasn't expecting so much positive response.

I'm going to do it.

Thank you for the great ideas. If it really gets going Book Crossing might be something to work with. That's definitely something that would have to be fully checked out by HR.

We have one here, but it's always been here, so I asked one of the "old-timers" how it got started.
Apparently someone was moving and didn't want to ship two boxes of older books.  They left them in the lunch room bookcase with a sign saying "Free to a good home" which later became "The Lending Library - Take a book, leave a book".  There are always an interesting assortment of titles available.
As far as I know, no one has ever left a box of moldy books. If they did, they were most likely just thrown straight in the trash.

It's a nice gesture, I hope your coworkers appreciate it.

Thank you for asking about it. That was a really nice thing to do.

I think my coworkers will appreciate it. I hope so. Our building in particular needs a little something. It's pretty drab.
We'll see how it goes.

[MadMadge43]

I hate to sound prejudiced, but I think people who would be interested in using this service, don't need much policing. People who read tend to understand the principals of sharing fairly. I think it's a brilliant idea.

Of course, I would never bring in a book that I wouldn't mind loosing, and I might recommend others don't either.

I will say Lauern and I would never be book swapping mates because I really don't care what happens to most of my books once I'm done reading them and unfortunatley not the biggest book returner because of it 

[hobish]

I was hoping it would be the kind of thing that didn't need much policing, maybe just someone to tidy up now & then & keep an eye on things. I didn't expect so much positive response about it being a good idea.

Now to present it to the scary HR folks. I think there is a template on the company intranet for such things. It asks about cost & who would be affected, who would benefit & such. That i can handle. Talking to HR & telling them in person why i think having a book trade i will have to build up to doing.

Wish me luck.

I will say Lauern and I would never be book swapping mates because I really don't care what happens to most of my books once I'm done reading them and unfortunatley not the biggest book returner because of it 

There is a book that someone loaned me on the condition that i never give it back, so i loaned it to a friend on the condition that she give it to someone else. If i get it back, cool. If not, cool too. I hope that is the kind of book that will end up on the shelf at work.