Project #1 : “Little Free Library” mobile app
Context
The Little Free Library movement is a beautiful way to share books. I have one in my front yard. The idea is to have lots of little boxes containing books that anyone can give or take to. I don’t think this could have existed when I was a child 40 years ago; people would simply have taken and never given.
People just randomly put used books in it. Sometimes I put books in it; the children’s books disappear quickly. Nobody has every taken all of the books out of it.
At the above website they have a map and registration process for the Little Libraries. Mine is registered; there are quite a few in my neighborhood.
The Invention Project
However, I think we could do far better.
Currently, Little Libraries are great for browsing if you are not selective about what you read. But you can only take what is present.
If you are looking for a particular book, you are unlikely to find it.
Using modern image processing and so-called machine learning, we could build an app for our phones that allow you to publish and find particular books.
Such an app would let me simply open the door to my Little Library and take a photo of the books. Software that recognizes characters would automatically discern and publish the particular titles/editions that I have. If it can’t determine these from the spines, I could reach in and photograph the back or front cover or the title page.
Such an app would let me search all Little Libraries for a particular book, or even assert that “I really want to read Perelandra, can someone put one in a Little Library close to me?”
Like public libraries and the Little Free Library Movement itself, this would be yet another step toward a world of abundance. Every child should be able to get almost any book they want to read quickly and easily at almost zero cost.
This project could be done at very low cost using moderate software skills. I’d be happy to work on this if a partner would join me.
PubInv Project #1: “Little Free Library” mobile app by Robert L. Read is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
