Embed Notice

I know that those little "library" take-a-book/leave-a-book hutches on people's porches in bougie neighborhoods like mine turn out to be a bit of a moral hazard because they create the impression of library availability without materially supporting the fundamental mission of libraries (and therefore sap actual libraries of support). But I'm a sucker, I love the æsthetic, and they're a lot of fun to browse when I'm out and about. Plus, I try to pre-order new books to support my favorite authors, but I don't really want a ton of paper books in my house — a few, yes, but I mostly prefer audiobooks and ebooks. Those "library" boxes are an easy way to give away those pre-ordered books which don't deserve a permanent place on my shelves once the electronic & audio editions are available.

I have a lot of public-domain books, audiobooks, and other media that I love to share with my housemates, neighbors, and friends. I think it would be really neat to have a sign out front which sort of looks like one of those library boxes, but actually tells people how to access my virtual library either locally on their phones or later on their computers at home.

The number one way I've tried to share things so far has been a shared folder on a NAS which I make available via Tailscale. Which absolutely works for the total nerds who comprise a large fraction of my friends, but not so much for the people who'd have a harder time locating their own copies. (To be clear: I have spent a lot of time searching for copies of esoteric documents, cleaning up bad formatting and metadata, and generally managing my personal media archive. There isn't an online directory which reasonably matches mine.) And it absolutely doesn't work for anonymous access by any neighbor who wanders by and sees a QR code or types in a link.

I'd like to share things in a straightforward way which is more accessible to less-technical folks. I would prefer not to use a commercial hosting service because I don't want to deal with them being pro-active copyright overzealots — I have absolutely zero confidence in their ability to understand that some books are actually in the public domain or appropriately-licensed, and I have no interest in spending time arguing with their support people. And besides, I have wonderful gigabit fiber at home, so why not be the archivist I want to see in the world and share things from a box of hard-drives in the basement? Plus, local copies make it easier to share with anyone walking past, regardless of their cellular connection.

I am sure that I am not the first person to want to host a collection of books and so on which they make available to others? What tools should I look at for sharing things locally on my network, remotely to friends, and easily to any anonymous person who walks by?