An MN library style thing idea here, shoot me down in flames if not suitable!

[piffle]

My mum reads about 6 new release paperbacks a weeka dn gives them to me, I read and then send to second hand shops
What I thought was for the price of 2nd class postage (about 80p for paperback) I could send on to a Mn'er who wanted it, they then could advertise on the book title thread when they had read it and could send it on, I know Tescos sell them for £3.73 which is cheap and a library is free, but would anyone be up for this?
I have HUGE list of titles, good stuff to set up with and anyone coould donate?
Whaddya think
Am off to bed now but will look tomorrow and see what people think?

piffle - please yell at Miaou and me if we have morphed into Mumsnet librarians and taken over your idea

I just can't resist the idea of getting involved in some admin again (sad person that I am) and books at the same time. It's like all my birthdays have come at once!

Me too SG

Seriously though piffle, please say if you feel I/we are taking over. i hate treading on people's toes.

Hello Miaou

Have looked at Yahoo Groups - easy peasy and looks ideal for the library. I have been playing around with it this morning, seeing what is possible.

Just need Piffle to return and slap our wrists for us before I go any further with it

Message withdrawn

I've set one up, thats what I was playing with this morning.

Piffle - where are you? Come back and talk to us please

piffles here
sorry been off reading nicci gerrards new one
Corking, my mums reading it now but then it'll be up for grabs!
No worried if anyone else wants to organise it. I'm happy to donate the books solely
I'll read back and double check!!!!
Happy librarianing ladies!

I'm not bothered about getting the books back at all!!!!!

what about 3-4 mn librarians who can be emailed who keep a copy of the books and where they are sent too
maybe an a-z system where person a, does a-h etc etc
that way requests can be emailed to the librarians who will know who has the books and can then email the person
this saves everyone from having 10000 emails and keeps the payment system (which should be I think reimbursement of postage upon or prior to sending out of book. When the book is sent the address payment should be made to can be inside the book, little slip or whatever?
Books will vary in cost too. Obv due to weight.
I am happy to do one or more of the above things, however I am CRAP at spreadsheets, but would happily help with admin.

Hiya piffle - what do you think to the Yahoo group idea. I have set one up to see how it would work. Do you want a look see?

hit me with it, although for some reason yahoo takes ages to load on my dial up

Oh - that might be a pain then I have your yahoo address from msn, shall I send invite there or do you have another email address you prefer to use?

Sent you an email Piffle but only have a yahoo address for you. don't know if it is the right one.

In the meantime anyone who wants a look see at the basic site I have set up it is here You can click on 'sign in to Yahoo' and sign on for now as mumslibrary, password mumsnet

Let me know what you think and if you want to go with it.

Or tell me to bog off back to my hole and stop taking over - whichever

I can't access SG's yahoo setup atm - anyone else want to have a look and give their opinions?

I'm not sure exactly how it works, I've signed up but I think I have to wait to be accepted into the group, is that right?

That looks great to me well done SG

Will there be a place on the data base to say whether the book is currently out on loan? This might save an email.

Let me know when this is a go-go and I'll will add to the collection.

Aw, I wanna see now ... but dh is away and I daren't tamper with the settings, I value my life too much!!

SG, just realised "who" you are, helllooooo......

Bran - have accepted you to group so you should have full access now.

Munchkinola - Add to the database as soon as you want to. I guess it will only get off the ground if enough people show an interest and the list of books grow. Have changed 'Current Location' to 'Current Location/On Loan To' so whereabouts of book would be known.

Miaou - hellloooo to you too you can't access. Hope you like what you see when you can get there.

Any more ideas/suggestions as to how database can be improved folks?

That looks good to me. It would be nice if the books could be sorted on category (eg romance/sci-fi/thriller etc) just in case there are lots of books registered it would save looking through lots of romance when you really want a murder mystery.

Sorry, I have mush brain, I spent ages trying to think of the word 'genre' and had to use category instead, only to remember the word as I pressed post.

Right, I've amended the database a bit to include genre. Don't think you can sort or search things (unless anyone who knows Yahoo groups knows better) but at least you can spot the type of book you want at a glance.

If by some miracle this really takes off and we get loads of books listed, then we can look at splitting the table down into sub-tables for each genre maybe.

On the mumsnet crafters group they have a folder for each genre of card. Not sure if this would work for databases though, just a thought.

You can sort and search very easily SG, to sort you just click on the heading that you want to sort by, and to search type the word that you're searching for into the box at the top right and click 'this database'.

Looks like a pretty useful system to me, I think this is going to be a great group.

Thank you bran. Now I know how to do it I have had fun sorting 'horror' from 'travel' and then, for some variety, 'travel' from 'horror' .

I am sorting through my books to find some more to go on. Anyone else going to join and add some?

By the way, the column 'owner' is there for the original contributor of each book so that if they want to reclaim their books from the library at any point in the future they will be traceable.

Can you accept me as a member? pleeeeeeease?

Sorry - really should have checked there first . You are accepted Munchkinola.