BookMooch: A Product Service System

Science & Technology (product service system)

Everybody (TreeHuggers included) has more books than they need. They're full of information, fun to read and easy to collect, but what do you do with 'em when you're done reading and they're relegating to collecting dust along with all those books from school that you swore you'd use again someday? Enter BookMooch (our newest product service system), a community that helps you get rid of your old books, get new books and even help charities, all for the cost of shipping. Here's how it works: sign up (it's free) and type in all the books you don't need any more. You earn points for each book you type in, and when someone requests one of your books, you send it off to them (you also earn points for mailing them). You can then take your points and request books you'd like from other people. If you prefer your local library to having books sent to you, take your points and give them to charities BookMooch works with, such as children's hospitals (so a sick kid can get a free book delivered to their bed), African literacy, or to the good people at BookMooch, to thank them for running this web site. Either way, you have fewer old books, more new ones, and are helping disseminate ideas and information across the land. Nice. ::BookMooch via ::Boing Boing

Illustration credit: Andrice Arp