From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bookcrossing 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 term is derived from BookCrossing.com, a free online book club which began and encouraged the practice.

There are also short hand terms for BookCrossing which are: BC, BCing, or BXing. A person who engages in bookcrossing is called a bookcrosser or BookCrosser.

BookCrossing.com has over 500,000 registered members, with its stated goal being to "make the whole world a library". One of the main ways the project has been funded is by member donations, though funding has also come from the online BookCrossing supply store and advertisements for a number of book-related websites on BookCrossing.com.

Contents 1 History 2 Process 2.1 Releasing 2.2 Catching 3 Furthering the BookCrossing idea 3.1 BookCrossing conventions 4 Notable BookCrossers 5 Controversy and criticism 6 Similar tracking websites 7 See also 8 External links

The idea was conceived by a partner of Humankind Systems, Inc., Ron Hornbaker in March 2001 [1]. About four weeks later, on April 17, the idea was brought to life with the launch of the website. Since then it has grown into a global movement; by April 2003 the website had over 113,000 members, and in 2004 the Concise Oxford Dictionary began to include the word "bookcrossing", as defined above.

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 was also featured in a BBC Radio project broadcast as 84 Book Crossing Road, which involved releasing 84 copies of Helene Hanff's book 84 Charing Cross Road around the world.

In 2004 BookCrossing was also featured briefly as part of a storyline in the Australian soap opera Neighbours.

Anyone who wishes to participate in "releasing" books must register on the BookCrossing.com website (to "catch" a book users have the option to remain anonymous). Once registered, a member is able to participate in a number of ways:

To "release" a book means that a member will pass the book on to a friend or fellow member or leave the book in a public place for anyone passing by to find. Leaving a book in a public place like this is known in the BookCrossing community as leaving a book in "the wild".

Before "releasing" a book it must be registered on the website. Registration produces a unique identification number called the "BookCrossing ID" or "BCID" which allows the book's movement to be tracked. The member must then mark the book with the "BookCrossing ID" and BookCrossing website URL so that the finder is able to make a journal entry for the book and enter his/her location on the website.

BookCrossing also provides "bookplates" with information about BookCrossing that can be printed out or purchased from the online supply store. These "bookplates" are then marked with the BCID and affixed (usually inside the front cover) to the book.

Finally, the member "releases" the book in any one of the ways talked about above.

"Catching" can only be done with books that have been registered on the BookCrossing website. To "catch" a book, the BCID marked on the book must be entered at BookCrossing.com. A book can be "caught" in "the wild", traded, or merely received as a gift. You do not need to be a member of the website to "catch" a book.

After entering the BCID, the person is able to enter their location (Country, State and City). Anyone wishing to remain anonymous has the option to leave their location blank. They will still be allowed to make a journal entry about the finding of the book and anything else they wish to add.

Once the member is finished reading the book, they are encouraged to "re-release" the book so that the process can be continued and other people are able to enjoy the book.

Bookcrossing.com users can 'go hunting', where a member will go to the website to view a list of books that have recently been "released", then go to the location it was left to "catch" it.

The community aspect of Bookcrossing.com has been acclaimed (see above Webby Award for social networking). BookCrossers interact with each other through a series of site forums, devoted to topics such as "Introduce yourself", "Advanced Questions", "Chit-Chat", "Book Talk" etc. There are several forum areas devoted to non-English speakers, including French, German and Greek.

Contact between BookCrossing members is also through Yahoo Groups, e-mail lists, local meetups and national conventions.

This contact has led to a number of different ways for books to be sent between BookCrossers. These include:

• BookRings: The member who begins a BookRing will receive the book once the ring has ended. This member first announces that they wish to begin a "BookRing". This is usually done in the BookCrossing forum. Other members who are interested in the book will post replies and will be added to a list of members who wish to receive the book. The book is sent to a second member who is involved in the "BookRing" along with the list of members. This allows the second member to contact the next person in the list to obtain their shipping address so that he/she can send them the book when they're finished.

• BookRays: A "BookRay" is almost exactly the same as a "BookRing", in that a list is made up and the book is sent to the people on the list. The sole difference is that in a "BookRay" the book does not return to the original member. The member at the end of the list gets to keep the book or release it if they wish.

• BookBoxes: A "BookBox" can occur the same way as either of the above. Instead of a single book, the original member puts together a box of, usually, 10-20 books. Most of the time the books will follow a genre or theme. When a member receives the "BookBox" they may take as many books as they'd like as long as they are replaced with another book.

• Trades: Where a member swaps books with another member. This is a largely unofficial process that works on trust alone, through the swapping of addresses. Alternatively, some users choose to swap books through another swapping site such as SwapShop.co.uk - though they do risk the book being caught by a non-BookCrosser who may not journal the book.

• Random Acts of BookCrossing Kindness (RABCKs): Where a book is sent by one member to another without expecting anything in return.

"Official BookCrossing Zones" (OBCZs)[2], are located in certain coffee shops, cafes, restaurants and other public places. The purpose of these locations are to get current members in the area to leave books to share with the public. This also advertises BookCrossing and creates more members. Many OBCZs can be found through the OBCZ World Map.

Beginning in 2004, BookCrossing members have organised conventions or conferences at a national level:

• April 17, 2004 - Christchurch, New Zealand (because of the time zone difference, this was the world's first BookCrossing convention.
• April 17, 2004 - St Louis, Missouri
• December 2004 - Sydney, Australia
• March 2005 - Christchurch, New Zealand
• April 2005 - Fort Worth, Texas
• July 2005 - Brisbane, Australia
• February 2006 - Dunedin, New Zealand
• April 2006 - Toronto, Canada
• July 2006 - Birmingham, United Kingdom
• October 19, 2006 - Adelaide, Australia
• March 2007 - Wellington, New Zealand
• April 19 - April 22, 2007 - Charleston, South Carolina

• Richard Bach, the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull, whose "bookshelf" contains several of his own books.
• Ron Hornbaker, who founded BookCrossing.com.

In 2003, BookCrossing was criticized by Jessica Adams, author of several "chick lit" novels, who claimed that books were being "devalued" by the website 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 website introduces readers to authors and genres that they have not read before, that the website gets more people to take up or reclaim reading as a hobby, and that 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 publisher Harper Press, said in a speech that "book publishing as a whole has its very own potential Napster crisis in the growing practice of bookcrossing". BookCrossers dispute rebut the link to Napster, saying that whilst music filesharing involves duplicating audio files countless times, BookCrossing doesn't involve duplicating books.

A related website is BookRelay. The idea of Relay is that there are lists of books that people want to send to new homes and interested readers. Each list has its own theme or restrictions, and only the book at the top of the list is available for trade. The official BookRelay.com site, maintained by CasualReader, was closed down in January 2007.

New variants of BookCrossing include Postcrossing and CDCrossing or DiscCrossing.

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 two 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. Where's George? and Where's Willy? track U.S. and Canadian bills. In fact, Hornbaker was inspired by the Where's George? website and wanted to do something similar with books, which is how BookCrossing was created.

Re-usable fabric gift bags with unique identifiers may be purchased from Wrapsacks and tracked in much the same way as books registered and released through Bookcrossing. The bags are used in place of less earth-friendly paper giftwrap.

ToyVoyagers is a similar project that tracks and photographs toys travelling on random journeys around the globe.

• Book swapping
• Bookhopping

• BookCrossing.com
• Local bookcrossing groups and events
• HumankindSystems.com The software and internet development responsible for BookCrossing.com
• What's this bookcase doing here? article + photo on ErasmusPC