Star Reporter writes “It’s a depressing sight.
Hundreds of books gathering dust on the ‘de-commissioned’ bookshelf, just waiting for someone to buy them at an absurd, knockdown price.
Meanwhile, libraries find their resources for buying new books stretched to the limit.
What if you could use the old books to bring in the new?
A simple idea – the kind that makes you think: why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?
Well it turns out someone has. Or rather, a website has.
It’s called ReadItSwapIt and it’s a 100 per cent free book exchange website based in the UK.
It allows users to swap old books for those sought-after popular titles.
There are over two thousand books available and 500 users to swap with.
It’s a great way to recycle old books, help the environment and get a bargain.
The site was the first of its kind and remains the only book swap site
that is completely free. It was invented two years ago by two young
British entrepreneurs, Neil Ferguson and Andrew Bathgate, in the hope
that it would encourage book swapping and giving in the UK.
Despite incurring costs running the site, they do not charge members
anything and now boast over 500 users.
“We wanted to create a site that would enable people to gain access to
hundreds of books, without having to spend any money,” said 26
year-old Read It Swap It co-founder Neil Ferguson, a computer
programmer who set up the site in his spare time.
He is hoping that the site will attract a new kind of ethical bookshopper this Christmas.
“Christmas is about giving, not spending money, and that’s really what
Read It Swap It is all about,” he added.
The site is also a great resource for book clubs – instead of buying a new book every month they can swap last month’s title on the site, free of charge.
The site URL is http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/ – please show your support for the book sharing community and build a link to us on your links page.”
Star Reporter writes “It’s a depressing sight.
Hundreds of books gathering dust on the ‘de-commissioned’ bookshelf, just waiting for someone to buy them at an absurd, knockdown price.
Meanwhile, libraries find their resources for buying new books stretched to the limit.
What if you could use the old books to bring in the new?
A simple idea – the kind that makes you think: why hasn’t anyone thought of that before?
Well it turns out someone has. Or rather, a website has.
It’s called ReadItSwapIt and it’s a 100 per cent free book exchange website based in the UK.
It allows users to swap old books for those sought-after popular titles.
There are over two thousand books available and 500 users to swap with.
It’s a great way to recycle old books, help the environment and get a bargain.
The site was the first of its kind and remains the only book swap site
that is completely free. It was invented two years ago by two young
British entrepreneurs, Neil Ferguson and Andrew Bathgate, in the hope
that it would encourage book swapping and giving in the UK.
Despite incurring costs running the site, they do not charge members
anything and now boast over 500 users.
“We wanted to create a site that would enable people to gain access to
hundreds of books, without having to spend any money,” said 26
year-old Read It Swap It co-founder Neil Ferguson, a computer
programmer who set up the site in his spare time.
He is hoping that the site will attract a new kind of ethical bookshopper this Christmas.
“Christmas is about giving, not spending money, and that’s really what
Read It Swap It is all about,” he added.
The site is also a great resource for book clubs – instead of buying a new book every month they can swap last month’s title on the site, free of charge.
The site URL is http://www.readitswapit.co.uk/ – please show your support for the book sharing community and build a link to us on your links page.”Well, there are some other sites similar to this one and this just seems like a library but online in terms of borrowing and returning books and it is interesting for one-on-one swaps, but probably not useful for real library collection development. Just my thoughts.
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