GOOD PRACTICES IN ACTIVE AGEING

“Free books at the Permanent University” appeared in the year 2006 as an initiative by some students of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante that were part of UPUA Cultural Volunteers. The main purpose was to release and exchange books, thus giving them more than one use. The students themselves put the idea into practice and have been working in maintenance services since its inception. To accommodate this initiative, the Permanent University has devoted some infrastructure resources. Our exchange points in the Permanent University of the University of Alicante offer one more possibility: the possibility from UPUA students to practice the value of solidarity by sharing books.

In many cases, books are used once and then remain forever forgotten and useless in shelves. The students of the Permanent University of the University of Alicante want to “offer these books” a chance for them to be useful again by taking them back to the reading circuits. At the same time, this will lead to a way of exchanging books for free. To achieve this, two bookcrossing points were established, one in the Campus (Hall of the General Library) and the other in the Alicante Town University Venue.
 
Bookcrossing is a universal movement that promotes the selfless release of books in a public place in the hope that somebody would pick them up, read them and keep them moving. This will lead to other releases of the same or other books in a generous and active exchange.

CUSTOM RELEASE: This possibility allows someone interested in reading a particular book to show this desire through a note (message or Post-it) in the hope that a partner would have it and release it. 
In addition to the Bookcrossing Point, it is also possible to visit free reading spaces, in the Library Hall or the Campus’s Gardens, as well as in the Venue Terrace beside the sea. It can be used freely in some times of the year, in the morning or in the afternoon, to read the books from the BOOKCROSSING POINT, and it functions as an Exchange Library, from which you can take books to read at the Venue or take them home and leave others instead.  

The initiative, working from year 2006, has established a central bookcrossing point at the Permanent University of the University of Alicante and has expanded, creating other bookcrossing points in the city centre in Solidarity Cafés, at the Campus Student Council Venue, some high schools, the CEAM (a specialized centre for elderly care) and in hairdressing saloons run by immigrants. In this way, many books have been released and many others have been transferred to other sub-venues set up as a result of this initiative.

Among the materials developed by older students and volunteers we can highlight the web, accessible in three languages (English, Spanish and Catalonian), information leaflets, posters to draw attention and indicate the location of bookcrossing points and diverse publications in the press and in magazines, all of this on their own initiative.

It has become an autonomous citizen movement, as well as an effective way of divulging, expanding and sharing culture, language and traditions. It is a caring and sustainable initiative.
In this Good Practice, student groups of different nationalities and ages have cooperated and have become a multicultural and intergenerational phenomenon that has allowed the release of books, written in many languages and covering various subjects, with a balance of more than 3.000 volumes since its inception.

The fact that other bookcrossing points have been created in the city of Alicante proves the great broadcast and transferability of this initiative that is open to the general public without any restriction whatsoever.