The Covert Family Website

The place for cool things to happen, blah, blah. blah. Whatever. Insert subtitle here.

Distributed Library Project

I’ve (re)set up a node in the Distributed Library Project here again at my site. This is an application you can run that lets you track yours and others books for loaning out.

Below is the description from the website.

So, if you live in the local Detroit area, a want to borrow / loan books, music, videos have a go at it.

This is the software distribution page for the Distributed Library Project, a website which creates a distributed library of people’s books, videos, and music. The project is an experiment in creating community and sharing information within a town or city.

Unfortunately, the traditional library system doesn’t do much to foster community. Patrons come and go, but there is very little opportunity to establish relationships with people or groups of people. In fact, if you try to talk with someone holding a book you like - you’ll probably get shushed. The Distributed Library Project works in exactly the opposite way, where the very function of the library depends on interaction.

Users create accounts complete with bios and interest enumerations, then list the books and videos that they own. Those users are then free to browse the books that others have listed - sorted by proximity, interest, and book commonality. If a book or video is available, a user can check it out directly from the owner.

There is an ebay-style feedback system for managing trust - users who return books on time get positive feedback, while users who damage books or return them late get negative feedback. These points create an overall “score” that lenders can use to judge the trustworthiness of a borrower.

The system also supports user reviews, reading lists, ISBN lookups, and collaboritve filtering.