Sarahlibrarina

Gap Filler #7 Book Exchange

After the Canterbury earthquake of September 4th, I heard about a wonderful initiative called Gap Filler. They were looking for creative ideas to bring a bit of life back to spaces created by demolished buildings in Christchurch.

A year or so earlier a friend living in London had sent me a newspaper clipping in the mail showing a public telephone box that had been converted into a book exchange. It fired my imagination.

I got in touch with Coralie Winn, Co Founder of Gap Filler, with an idea for a book exchange.

We got together and made a plan. Coralie’s initial idea for a site once held a wonderful cafe, Simply Catering, and this lead to the idea to use a catering fridge as a receptacle for the books - being large, with shelves, and water proof.

We were all set to launch at the start of March 2011 to coincide with NZ Book Month, but the February 22nd earthquake struck. Given the circumstances we, and the rest of the city, found ourselves in, we postponed.

A couple of months ago, Coralie and I regrouped. Coralie found a new site - that which once held the Herbal Dispensary and a picture framing gallery - on the corner of Kilmore and Barbadoes Streets. Three corners of this intersection have lost buildings.

Coralie and Ryan, of Gap Filler, were keen to provide a theme for this Book Exchange, and so the THINK DIFFERENTLY theme was born. Our world has been turned upside down in Christchurch, and I think we’re all thinking differently about life now.

[Artist’s impression of the site, by GapFiller]

By asking people to bring along a book to share that inspired them to think differently themselves, we thought perhaps it could help others think differently too.

The project launched on an unseasonably sunny Sunday afternoon on 17th July. It was a superb day and well over 100 people turned up - including a few familiar and welcome faces from the library world, a few politician, lots of Gap Filler regulars, Tweeps, local residents, families and passers by.

I was flat out for several hours registering books and explaining how the Book Exchange works. We had queues both at the deposit desk, and the fridge itself. Once I registered books I asked people to shelve them and to make sure they select a few books to take away!

It was tremendous and touching to see how excited people were about the project. Some people turned up with a carefully chosen book, a note inside explaining how it made them THINK DIFFERENTLY; others bought box loads.

We had very rough classification system: Fantasy, General Fiction, Non Fiction and Kids. Our classifications were marked out by gravel filled receptacles you’d usually find in a fridge - milk bottles and screw top jars.

It was great to have the support of many Bookcrossing folk who sent books in to the project from around the country and within the Christchurch area. Some had rallied around their workmates to fill boxes of books to send us.

Big thanks to Jennifer, a local Bookcrosser, who turned up with a bag of books and helped out with much needed shelving!

I’m extremely happy with how the day went, and it has been so satisfying to be a part of something positive in the community; even more so now that I’m leaving town.

The fridge will be in situ until sometime in October, open 24.7 - a community book exchange to nourish the soul, and hopefully help us all to think a little bit differently.

Update 5.12.11

Russell Brown mentions the book fridge about 9 mins into this interview.

Update 9.11.11

The fridge is still going strong and it looks like other areas in Christchurch are keen to have their own local book exchange. According to the Gap Filler Facebook page there maybe one set up soon in Woolston.

The book fridge will feature in a documentary “When a City Falls”, produced by Gerard Smyth & Alice Shannon of Frank Films - here’s the trailor.