Since we started the Unlibrary, it's been open to everyone who wanted to use the space, and has been treated well by most users, including students using it for revision.

However recently items have been broken and defaced. As we want users to make their profiles special and kep them safe, and hope to build a growing community of co-workers and collaborators who use the space, we've decided on a change to our completely open access policy.

From today (or rather since Saturday, when it was left in a messy state), the Unlibrary will be locked when not in use. The key will be downstairs at the main library reception. We are creating unlibrary cards for our unmembers - and yes we will have an unmembership scheme.

To join the Unlibrary, come to our Tuesday meet up from 11-12. We'll add you to the list of unmembers. We're also asking all members to sign up to the www.opinion8.ning.com website and join the Unlibrary group there which we'll use to post latest news of the Unlibrary. And please follow @theunlibrary on Twitter. 

The idea is that whichever member picks up the key, takes on the 'host' role while they are there, and if they are leaving, they hand it over to whoever else is there. (Should they be leaving if other people are there, but no other Unlibrary unmember, they'll leave the key with one of the caretakers, either Terry or Sterling, and make them aware that the space is still open.) Thus, hopefully, if someone comes to the Unlibrary for the first time, there will be somebody who will catch their eye and invite them in, helping them to settle in and engage with the space and the people in it.

The Unlibrary unmembership cards should be done by the end of this week and we can arrange for them to be picked up at the main reception.

The Devonshire House and the Unlibrary have become firm friends. The pub hosts one of our spin-off projects, the Portable Bookshop, every Wednesday. and has included a plug for @portablebooks on their blog (started after seeing ours.) There is even a 20% discount on food if you buy a book.

It all started when, on my usual 'local business' twitter spy outings (really just a permanent Crouch End search column in my tweetdeck,) I noticed that the new Wetherspoons pub in Crouch End had started a twitter account as soon as they opened.

In working with the Unlibrary, trying to make twitter (and the Unlibrary as a community hub and source of social media skills and knowledge) make sense to local business has been a major objective. So a business that is new to Crouch End immediately starts using twitter, was somebody I needed to talk to.

So I went into the Devonshire House, the brand new local Wetherspoons pub. Stuart, the manager of the pub, came out for a chat, and I introduced myself - 'nice to meet you, I'm Anke, and I work on something here called the Unlibrary.'

Of course, as expected, there was the initial 'wtf is the Unlibrary?' and of course there is a limited amount of understanding that is possible to be conveyed by talking about the Unlibrary. However I gave it a good shot, and then tweeted about having been into the local @devonshire_ pub. At which point, I believe, it all started making sense to Stuart.

I plan to interview Stuart about the benefits he sees from partnering with the Unlibrary, to see if there is something other local businesses would like to try and take inspiration from. Even though both the Portable Bookshop and the Unlibrary could probably exist without social media, here is definitely a huge amount of value for local businesses in taking part in these conversations online, as well as use social media to make these arrangements in the first place.

At some point it becomes easier and more open than e-mail or phone call. And how great would it be if we could do this with other businesses.

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Click here to download:

portable-books-at-devonshire-house-and-the-unlibrary-geqwjwcfkaEpwhDoqAAs.zip (1.15 MB)

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Click here to download:

c-est-n-est-pas-un-profile-box-JmcoDljhaFItGmDpnspm.zip (3.34 MB)

We had so much fun today we might do this every first Saturday of the month, 9am - lunchtime...

Help us give the Unlibrary space a makeover.

28 March - 3 April is Makeover Week, with an afternoon on Thursday 31 March where we will work in the space. We will invite everyone who has a profile box to come refresh their displays, and everyone who doesn't yet have one, to set one up and put their stamp on the space.

We would also like some help giving the space a visual identity. It looks really nice with the handmade items in the shelves, but it could use a professional hand bringing the space and its online identity closer  together.

As for practical things, we would like to buy (mod/retro?) fabric to be stretched on frames to go on the walls for notice boards, so we don't have to put notices straight on the walls. The space could use a lick of paint, and various bits of flexible furniture for co-working set-ups.

If you'd like to help out but can't be here this week, there is a cheeky fundraising page here http://www.indiegogo.com/Unlibrary-Makeover

Let us know what you want to do during the week, and come and help out on Thursday between 3 and 7.

See you then!

The Unlibrary spin-off project THE PORTABLE LIBRARY was (soft) launched on Sunday, thanks to the efforts of @raliel, @the_anke and @biggreenbooks

and it was good.

Go HERE

Thanks to all the staff at Hornsey Library who were so positive about this event, to all the participants for their amazing contributions. 

Here's Diana Edmonds, Assistant Director of Culture, Libraries and Learning at Haringey Council, talking about the libraries of her dreams at the All-Nighter. The debate took place at 10.30 pm on Saturday night. There was a good sized audience and also plenty of users simply milling around browsing the shelves, reading and working quietly. 

And these are the films we watched at midnight and 4.00 am.

Click here to see the Unlibrary Book of Dreams, assembled by Kati Rynne over the night and launched before first light. 

http://www.myspace.com/marciamelloragtime

http://www.myspace.com/katharineblake