Further to the comment on Owl's previous post, “displacing the advertising model of book publishers; and those who pay for localized printing will be incentivized to donate the books to their local library….” it may be that the official libraries, too few and limited as they are, will be displaced as well.
The man who turned his home into a public library
By Kate McGeown
BBC News, Manila, 19 September 2012
If you put all the books you own on the street outside your house, you might expect them to disappear in a trice. But one man in Manila tried it – and found that his collection grew.
Hernando Guanlao is a sprightly man in his early 60s, with one abiding passion – books.
They're his pride and joy, which is just as well because, whether he likes it or not, they seem to be taking over his house.
Guanlao, known by his nickname Nanie, has set up an informal library outside his home in central Manila, to encourage his local community to share his joy of reading.
The idea is simple. Readers can take as many books as they want, for as long as they want – even permanently. As Guanlao says: “The only rule is that there are no rules.”
It's a policy you might assume would end very quickly – with Mr Guanlao having no books at all.
But in fact, in the 12 years he's been running his library – or, in his words, his book club – he's found that his collection has grown rather than diminished, as more and more people donate to the cause.
Read full article with photos.
