Helsinki Airport Book Swap

One design idea: houzz.com via Inka

I’m spending some time in Helsinki this week & next. And thanks to Bobbi Newman’s Library Day in the Life project and twitter, I’ve connected with a number of librarians in the area. I’m really looking forward to meeting them and visiting their libraries. Will report back in with photos as I make those visits. Really love how many folks have suggested lunch, coffee and drinks meetings in addition to library visits! 🙂

But on to the Helsinki airport books swap. Prior to arriving in Helsinki, I’d been tweeting with the QualityHunters, an initiative of the Helsinki airport and Finnair focused on finding fresh ideas to improve travel. They’re in the process of setting up an airport book swap room that sounds very much like the wonderful Little Free Libraries that are popping up all over the place. True to Finnish style (Helsinki is the World Design Capital for 2012 after all), they’re looking for design ideas via a Pinterest board.

I’m so sorry I won’t be in Helsinki when the book swap room opens in late June, but with IFLA here in August, there will be zillions of librarians passing through the airport. Wouldn’t it be great if lots of IFLA attendees dropped a book at the book swap?

This also made me think of Jason Griffey’s LibraryBox project. How cool would it be to have Helsinki area libraries get together to put a LibraryBox in the book swap room with tons of free ebooks to download?

(I was so excited about Jason’s project that I almost bought the necessary equipment to bring with me to see if I could build one while I’m on vacation. I resisted! My luggage was almost overweight as it was!)

Now if only someone could tell me the Finnish for “move your blowtorch, the fumes are filling my apartment.” The construction going on 2 feet from this desk is making me crazy. Time to get out and visit a cafe or museum or walk around the harbor. Helsinki is a wonderful city, if you’re attending IFLA in August, enjoy!  Kippis!