About
What this is
A neighbourhood library with no central shelf. The books stay with the people who own them; the site shows who has what near you and carries a loan from the first ask to the return.
No money, no fines, no membership fee.
Who it is for
Finchley Hebrew Library — Hebrew-speaking families in North London. You join by invitation from a member, and you only ever see your own community's books.
Listing a book
Add → type a title and author, or an ISBN if the book has one. The cover and details arrive on their own where a provider knows the book; you can photograph your own cover and crop it instead.
It shows up for your neighbours straight away, with your rough area and the distance — not your address.
Borrowing a book
Search or browse, then ask. The owner agrees, you settle a time and place, and you meet. Each side gets a short code that confirms the handover, so the library knows who is holding the book.
If a book is already out you can ask to be next — and sometimes it passes straight from the previous reader to you.
Lending a book
A request arrives by email. Accept or decline, agree a time, hand it over. Your profile sets how many books you are willing to have out at once; at that limit your books stay in the catalogue but cannot be requested.
Or just ask
You can connect the library to an AI assistant — Claude, ChatGPT and others — and then simply say what you want, in your own words, with no forms. It searches the catalogue, lists books, asks for them and answers requests on your behalf.
Your books stay yours
Every loan is an agreement between two neighbours. The site keeps the record and takes no responsibility for the books themselves. Terms