How the library works

The books in this library can't be read. Each one can hold a single note, written by a stranger. To open any book you first write a note of your own: you can't take without giving, and the number of notes on the shelves only ever grows.

• Notes are 1–300 characters of plain text, with no links. You can date a note if you like.
• You carry one note at a time. It's your ticket to open books, and it never expires.
• Opening an empty book lets you place your note there. Opening a book with a note inside uses one of your note's five peeks.
• When you find a note you can leave it where it is, or swap: take it and leave yours in its place. Either way you can press a flower into it.
• Taken notes go to your private collection (up to 50). Return one to your hand to send it travelling again.
• While you have a book open, it's yours alone for up to three minutes.
• You can write three notes a day.

Every note is read by an AI librarian (Anthropic's Claude) before it reaches anyone. Notes with personal details, hate, harassment, sexual content, spam or anything dangerous are gently turned back. Sadness, anger, confessions and the odd mild swear word are welcome.

If a note suggests its writer might be in danger, it isn't shelved — instead the writer is shown people who can help. Any reader can report a note; after two reports it leaves its shelf until a human librarian has looked at it.

The library is also a small social experiment: what do people write when they know a stranger will find it, and do they value what strangers leave behind? This is what is measured, anonymously:

• Each note's category (advice, joke, poem…) and mood, as tagged by the AI librarian.
• How often notes are read, kept (swapped) or left, and how far they travel.
• Whether notes are dated, how long they are, and the time of day they're written.

The headline question is the swap rate: which kinds of notes do strangers choose to keep? Once the library holds 1,000 notes, the findings will appear in a Library Census. Notes are never published with anything that could identify you.

• There are no names, profiles or messages. Your library card is an anonymous account kept in this browser.
• Your IP address is used only to limit how many new cards are issued, stored as a salted hash, and discarded after 24 hours.
• The text of rejected notes is kept for 30 days to improve the librarian's judgement, then deleted.
• You can delete your account at any time. Notes you wrote stay on the shelves without any link to you, so the library never shrinks.
• We aim to follow the New Zealand Privacy Act 2020. The library is for readers aged 16 and over.

Write to the librarian at [email protected].