BOOK-CROSSING

The culture is done in the street with the book-crossing: books for everyone, always accessible

In the era of smart phones and e-book, there is still a place for old books and telephone booths? Somewhere in the world, it seems so. Germany, the birthplace of Gutenberg's movable character, has long sponsored the "public library", an evolution of Book Crossing: free, always available, placed in the streets and squares of the countries to bring culture to the passersby. You can take the books and leaving others with no registration and no deadlines.

COLOGNE 

"It is aimed at those who love to read and is open to all." With these words Michael Aubermann begins the book-crossing project in Cologne, where five free libraries have been installed, the last of which (steel with glass doors) was positioned near Bayenturm, the ancient tower which began the walls of the city.

From Cologne, the public library, funded and run by volunteers, began to spread rapidly in many other German cities: Hannover, Bonn, Berlin, and especially in the poorest areas of the city, where access to books is more difficult.

BERLIN 

In Berlin, the experiment is even more interesting: in the north of Mitte district, where the historical "Unter den Linden" and precisely in Prenzlauer Berg, is another green promenade, younger than that under the lime trees and certainly more to 'avant-garde.

Thanks to Berlin Book Forest, trees sprouting here of books, a project promoted by the women's entrepreneurial BauFachFrau, aimed at giving new life to dead trees , turning them into a small library available to the public , with the only constraint to practice bookCrossing .

"The project - explain to BauFachFrau - wants to contribute to the sustainable development of vocational education and aims to enhance the chain forest - wood - book. It was developed and designed as an interdisciplinary approach , born from the cooperation of experts in forestry, carpentry , joinery, media design , printing and books "

Founded in 2006 as a temporary library and intended to be removed after a couple of years, the forest of books has become a reality so amatadagli residents and the patrons to be able to preserve its strong roots , educating the culture and reading , dissemination Free literature and the protection of forests from exploitation for the production of paper.

Today, each trunk can hold up to 100 books: novels, essays , fairy tales for children, self-produced work , are all placed inside caskets carved in the bark and are protected from the elements thanks to the tendon of plastic.

VIENNA 

Even in Vienna, with the collaborative project "offener Bücherschrank", was born a true library in the open where anyone can pick up a book on loan and leave one of your own without the need for cards.

The library is always open and maintained by volunteers, and each book is regularly applied a stamp that indicates membership. There are three main "offener Bücherschrank", each containing about 200 books: 

corner Zieglergasse / Westbahnstrasse District 7 

corner Grundsteingasse / Brunnengasse District 16 

corner-Heinz Heger-Park in the District 9

NEW YORK 

The idea lands overseas: in New York, John Locke, an architect at Columbia University, wanted to transform the disused phone booths in cosiddetteguerilla libraries: libraries improvised in which to practice the book-crossing. 

By designing custom-made shelves, which are inserted in the cabins and provided books, allowed passersby to take the books they are interested in and replace them with others of their liking. 

The books used to launch the initiative were donated by the residents of the neighborhoods in which they are telephone booths and by Locke himself, while the shelves were provided by the Kontraprionist.

The first two experiments , both in Manhattan, did not go through. The first library was located in an isolated area , with books free of any brand and with no explanation on how to use the library . This has resulted in the theft within six hours, as well as the shelves , that ten days later they did the same fine.La second library was placed in a phone booth in a residential neighborhood , including a subway station , a school and a church. The back of the books has been marked with a logo to prevent it being stolen and resold.

Observing the behavior of passers-by , it was noted that many leafing through the books and they placed them on the shelves , unsure of what rules to follow. Others, however , in the spirit of BookCrossing , took the books and replace them with others of their choice . After six weeks, however , both the shelves that the books had been removed .

Locke is planning a third experiment : Convert a phone booth near a public school in a small children's library , whose books will be marked with a logo and accompanied by simple words , such as " share " or " borrow " Explanatory of the project.

What can I say? A very interesting project, which not only add a pinch of art and design to the cities' subways, intrigues the attention of passers-by. A simple and original going to revive "objects" now considered dead.