The Touchwood Project

This past week I’ve been researching websites for another pilot project we’ve got in the works: a Touchwood Friends library. I thought I’d share some of the useful websites for keeping track of your books that I’ve come across as well as give an update on this latest project since we’ve already had quite a bit of interest in it.

With a Touchwood Friends library we want to go a step beyond booksharing and look at ways to actually do the projects in a book.

From "Herbal Remedies in Pots"

Originally, we were just going to have a library of shared books between members with similar interests in learning new skills and doing things ourselves (think crafts, DIY, that sort of thing). It seemed a shame to own all these great books like Herbal Remedies in Pots (featured above), say, and not share it.

Going from just reading to actually doing

But then I got to thinking how it’s just not enough to borrow and lend books. It’s what you do with the book that I think Touchwood should be involved in, since we’re always looking at ways to “get people together to have fun making things better”, as our tagline goes.

I mean, how often do you borrow or buy a non-fiction book thinking somehow you’ll learn its knowledge simply by having it? A kind of learning by osmosis perhaps where you’ll get around to cooking that Moroccan meal if you buy the cookbook. Except you never quite seem to manage it.

Well that’s me, anyway. I love books, adore them. But I also want to start doing more things. I want get around to making the “Nettle Hair Rinse” in my Ultimate Natural Beauty Book or dipping my toe into gardening with the Aloe Bowl project in The Virgin Gardener.

A simple project from "The Virgin Gardener"

When Malcolm and I met up with two other Touchwood Friends, Victoria and Frances, we saw we weren’t alone in this desire. Now the 4 of us are testing out different book cataloguing websites like Shelfari to see which might work best for our needs.

Which virtual bookshelf website is the best?

For myself, I’ve narrowed it down pretty much to GuruLib and Shelfari, which both let you add books to a virtual library, keep track of who you’ve lent your books to, and find similar books. GuruLib isn’t as pretty or slick as Shelfari, but it’s designed more clearly for borrowing and lending books. We’ll see what the other 3 testers think.

I’ve also checked out a website for book clubs and reading groups called BookSprouts, but sadly, it’s pretty buggy and since it’s developed by 3 people in their spare time (oh, can I sympathize), I’m not sure they’re ever going to get around to fixing all the errors. I couldn’t add any books when I tried earlier today.

Also worth mentioning is Scriblio, which is basically taking a public library’s catalogue and turning it into a WordPress website complete with tags and comments and so on. Sadly, because it was developed by librarians it only seems to work with existing library databases, meaning you can’t easily add your books to the catalogue like you can with Shelfari and GuruLib. So for now, that’s out. But hey, if the Orkney Public Library would be interested (hint, hint), that’d be brilliant.

More useful websites coming up

Talking over this project with Malcolm he suggested I write a post about the most useful websites I’ve come across in terms of enabling you to do fun, creative and useful things. So that’s next time.

Tags: Useful books

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