BookCrossing
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BookCrossing, BC, BCing or BXing, is defined as the practice of leaving a book in a public place to be picked up and read by others, who then do likewise. The idea is to release books into the "wild" to be found by other people, often strangers. The analogy is to the ornithological practice of ringing birds to track their movements.
If someone decides to release a book via the BookCrossing website, the book has to be registered in order to get a BCID—a BookCrossing ID number first so it can be tracked. The person who finds or catches the book is then requested to log onto the BookCrossing web site and complete a journal, and then pass on the book when he or she has finished reading it.
There are no charges for membership but donations received will go towards the maintenance of the servers and continue the exile of pop-up ads on the website. Members who order BookCrossing items through the supply store or BC Newsstand will receive wings on the sides of their screennames and additional benefits like fewer advertisements displayed and having access to the book registration database.
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History
Ron Hornbaker conceived the idea in March 2001 (see below) inspired by currency bill tracking. The website was launched around 4 weeks later, on April 17 2001. Since then, it has grown into a global movement: as of June 12 2005, the site has around 366,500 members and 2,102,000 books registered. In August 2004, the Concise Oxford Dictionary added the word "bookcrossing".
Process
After registering books on the website and attaching print-out bookplates with the registration number and information about BookCrossing (usually on or inside the front cover), the releaser may follow his or her books on their trip in the "wild" and read the finders' opinions or comments, if the person reports his or her catch on the BookCrossing website (see below).
Furthering the BookCrossing idea
Contact between BookCrossing members (called BookCrossers) is facilitated through forums on the website, email lists (many countries have their own email lists as well as a main international list), an unofficial "wish-list" system, local meetups and national conventions.
This has led to a number of different ways for books to be sent between BookCrossers. These include:
- Trades: Where a BookCrosser swaps books with another member.
- Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness (RABCKs): Where a book is sent by a BookCrosser to another member without expecting the receiving member to send any book in return.
- Bookrays and Bookrings: A group of people "subscribe" to a book on the internet and the book is mailed from one participant on the list to the next, often across continents. The only difference is that books in bookrings will return to the original owner while books in bookrays do not. Instead, the last person on the list to receive the book gets a choice whether to release it or to organise another bookring or bookray.
- Bookboxes: Similar to Bookrings/rays - each participant, except the original sender, should however replace a specified number of books with volumes of his own of the same genre.
Where a book is sent to a known individual then this is sometimes known as a Controlled Release in order to differentiate it from a "wild" release.
Official BookCrossing Zones, which are sometimes called OBCZs or OBZs are located in places like Starbucks coffee shops, restaurants or other shops where accessible to the public. These OBCZs refer to bookshelves placed there so that BookCrossers could catch or release books.
Controversy
In 2003, BookCrossing was criticised by the author Jessica Adams who claimed that books were being "devalued" by the site as BookCrossing could lead to lower sales of books and, therefore, the reduction in royalties being paid to authors. Most BookCrossers dispute this argument however. They claim that the site introduces readers to authors and genres they have not have read before, that the site gets more people to take up or reclaim reading as a hobby and some members, having read a book that they have enjoyed, will buy extra copies to distribute through BookCrossing.
In March 2005, Caroline Martin, managing director of the publishers HarperPress, said in a speech that "book publishing as a whole has its very own potential Napster crisis in the growing practice of book crossing".
Related
A further, new variant of BookCrossing is CDCrossing or DiscCrossing.
Another concept is BookRelay. Through this, members send books that they've read to another person who requested it and they request another book that they would like to read. Just like a relay, books switch owners through the mail and not by releasing.
PhotoTag is the original idea which BookCrossing is based on. The difference is that PhotoTag uses disposable cameras and passed on to friends and strangers and then returned to the original releaser when the film is used up. The photos are then uploaded to the PhotoTag website.
Geocaching is a similar system that uses Global Positioning System and the internet to lead users to a cache of "treasures". Some members integrate the 2 systems and BookCrossing books are placed in Geocaches.
Currency bill tracking is a similar system that tracks the movement of individual bills - a dollar bill or a five euro note, for example - according to their serial number.
In 2004, BookCrossing featured briefly as part of a storyline in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.
In May 2005, BookCrossing.com won two People's Voice awards in the Webby Awards for best community website and best social/networking website. BookCrossing also featured in a BBC Radio project broadcast as 84 Book Crossing Road (http://www.fallingtree.co.uk/84books.htm), which involved releasing 84 copies of Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road around the world.
External links
- BookCrossing.com (http://www.bookcrossing.com)
- BookCrossing Info PDF (2004-Q3) (http://www.bookcrossing.com/pr/bookcrossing-media-kit-2004Q3.pdf) (1.46 MB)
- A short history of the BookCrossing site (http://bookcrossing.com/about)
- Unofficial "wishlist" system (http://cliff1976.com/BC/default.asp)
- Audio interview with Ron Hornbaker and Jessica Adams (http://www.hey-miki.com/BookCrossingDoc.htm)
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