6 ms·

Delivering local library books to your doorstep

21 points by Lurebees 6y ago

Lurebees 6y ago
Please share your feedback for any improvement or dislike.
- CapriciousCptl 6y ago
  I could be wrong but the price seems too high. If you find the same, I would consider doing a bit of market research estimating how much people use the library at areas particularly far from the library, and estimating a price you would need to make it work with batched deliveries (kind of like garbage day, your library day is...). Then set your price based on that and see if it takes off.
  - alisonkisk 6y ago
    It costs about the same as food delivery and shop delivery.
  - Lurebees 6y ago
    Thank you so much for your reply and interest. Yes, we do see batch pickup being ideal for us and driver to be profitable.
netizen-9748 6y ago
Nothing displays with JavaScript disabled. Nothing on the landing page needed JavaScript, it was all text. The mechanism that actually did load the text broke my method of web dark mode. I gave up and left because it was a pain in the ass. I do have one question though, does the service cost money for deliveries?
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thanks for making the attempt. It works fine without JavaScript disabled. Is there a reason you have disabled it? Yes, it does cost money to delivery your books. However, your library books are free of cost (taxpayer funds).
  - netizen-9748 6y ago
    I'm aware it works fine without js disabled, but my question is why I need to load some js libraries to display a wall of text and a button. Most websites still display text and allow you to read without having js enabled, I keep it disabled by default to block tracking and fingerprinting.
    - Lurebees 6y ago
      Make sense. Thank you for the feedback.
  - bluntfang 6y ago
    > Is there a reason you have disabled it? is there a reason to require javascript?
_Microft 6y ago
How does delivery work? Is it by car or by bike? At fixed times or on demand? Since the pandemic started here, the local library has partnered with bicycle couriers for delivery of books. They even worked out a way to be subsidized by the city to make delivery more affordable for the customers. This is in Germany though, and our denser cities seem to be more suited to bike couriers than sprawling American cities might be.
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your reply and interest. Our drivers would need a cars since books can be heavy and majority of the customer will place large numbers of holds. We have three different orders customers can put in. Pickup only, pickup/return and return only. Each order is 6.50. Local libraries around the US don't have the budget or capacity to start delivery service for the entire county. Our tax money doesn't stretch that far when it comes to library services.
blatherard 6y ago
How do you handle returning books? Is there another charge for that, and how does pickup work?
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you for your reply and interest. We have three different orders our customer can place. 1. Pickup only from library $5.99 2. Pickup from library & Drop off books to library $5.99 3. Drop off only to library $5.99
chovybizzass 6y ago
$7 to deliver and $7 to return, may as well buy the book or get a kindle.
- dexterdog 6y ago
  I can mail a book across the country for much less. Sure it's probably at a loss to the USPS z but I should be able to do a local delivery or pickup for a fraction of that esp if you could somehow tie in the local post office.
  - tyingq 6y ago
    Especially cheap because of the USPS media mail rates: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Media-Mail-Book-Rate https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Media-Mail-Book-Rate
  - Lurebees 6y ago
    Thank you so much for your reply and interest. We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone. Why buy a book if you can rent one from your tax money to local libraries. Why put others at loss, if you can create jobs for people who enjoy working in gig economy.
- egypturnash 6y ago
  Hopefully that’s $7 to pick up/return an entire load of held books, not just one. I know when I was a kid my library card was constantly maxed out on how many books I could have out simultaneously, I think like 20 or 30? We’d go to the library pretty much weekly and bring back ones I’d read, along with the occasional book I’d decided to not finish, or ones I’d just never started on, and I’d get about that many new-to-me ones out.
  - Lurebees 6y ago
    Thank you so much for your reply and interest. There are libraries that allows you to put in hold for up to 50 books depending on the availability of books. There are two types of orders. One is just a pick up from library and other is pick/drop. Yes, our customer need to let us know the quantities of books being returned to library. I have 4 kids under the age of six. So we pretty much put alot of books on hold every week. Utilizing our tax money! We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone.
faitswulff 6y ago
As soon as COVID is over, I’m planning to bring my kids to the library in person because it’s a whole experience. Do you have any plans beyond COVID for keeping the service running?
- fiftyacorn 6y ago
  I grew up in Dunfermline, which was Andrew Carnegies birthplace, and was one of the first places to have a Carnegie library. It was/is an amazing library - in fact i got most of my uni books on loan there I used it a lot growing up - and make a point of using libraries even over buying books because i think access to libraries is so important and when people don't use libraries it will be used as an excuse to defund them
  - Lurebees 6y ago
    Thank you so much for your interest and reply. I 100% believe that everyone should have access to local libraries.
Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
Congratulations OP. If you could find a way to deliver books for rent in small towns of Tier2/3 cities where there are no proper libraries then you solve problems like 'I don't have access to a proper library in my city'[1] posted on my problem validation platform. You're still welcomed to explain how Lurebees solves their problem. [1]https://needgap.com/problems/33-i-dont-have-access-to-a-proper-library-in-my-city https://needgap.com/problems/33-i-dont-have-access-to-a-prop... (Disclaimer: I created this platform).
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  Enough. Please stop spamming your site on every tangential thread.
  - Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
    How can it be spam or tangential when the person in that thread is asking exactly what OP is building and I'm sharing that to help OP reach their target customers? Everyone shares their experience, subjective/objective opinions on OT here on HN and I did the same. Today there were several solutions related to the problems in my platform . Sometimes months go by where I never shared the platform and sometimes there are days like this when I can share something which I felt was valuable to OP. I'm sorry that you felt it to spammy, I'll limit my shares.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]
williamjackson 6y ago
This sounds like a lovely service, but my library requires the cardholder to be present when checking out books. My father tells stories of living in Las Vegas in the late 70s when the local public library already provided this service for free to all patrons.
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your interest and reply. This can change in future due to demand of books delivery.
hycaria 6y ago
Part of the pleasure is simply going there and shuffling through books. I think many of us will have such fond memories as children. Instead we now promote all possible services to the doorstep. Delivery people get paid minimum wage doing this kind of ship. Customers don’t even see the cost accumulated of all those delivery services. All this so that everyone stays at home and never ever meet people living next door, or even worse, stand in a line for two minutes to checkout books and have to go through the purgatory of smiling to the librarians working there. I hate it so so much. I hate that other privileged white software dev as I am continuously stumble upon such ideas and see them as great, when it kills communities even more.
- objectivetruth 6y ago
  All of these comments are perfectly valid once the pandemic is completely over. Until then, this attitude is pretty dismissive of the underpaid library workers that have to stand there and breathe in the virus that the public is bringing in. Most libraries are only offering curbside pickup right now in an effort to protect the staff.
- Mediterraneo10 6y ago
  "Part of the pleasure is simply going there and shuffling through books." The new "libraries of the future" that are being built tend to hide most of the books in closed stacks. You kind of already have to know what you are looking for, so that you can put in a request to have the book brought from the stacks to the reservation shelf. Even when libraries these days are intentionally being built as a space for the community to meet (like Helsinki’s Oodi library), books are a pretty small part of their overall mission.
bergstromm466 6y ago
> 4. By placing order with Lurebees, you agree to have library books picked up by Lurebees drivers and deliver to your house address. So basically a (soon to be VC funded) Uber-like gig economy delivery app for renting books? For $7 it's a service only for the rich, while also putting gig workers at risk. I'm not saying it's a terrible idea, I'm just tired of seeing another rentierist middleman app that dresses up a simple protocol and exploits the working class. "Exploitation, now available from your local library!"
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your reply and interest. We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone. As for the risk, we do care for our driver and would not put them on any risk. I'm very sorry about your feeling on middleman. As for our drivers, they have the ability to make significant amount of money from one library pickup. For example, if there are 20 orders to be picked from one library this can generate significant amount of pay in one library stop. Local libraries around the US don't have the budget or capacity to start delivery service for the entire county. Our tax money doesn't stretch that far when it comes to library services. However, there are libraries that do have delivery service, but its only for patrons with permanent disability or other limitation.

21 points by Lurebees 6y ago

Lurebees 6y ago

Please share your feedback for any improvement or dislike.

CapriciousCptl 6y ago
I could be wrong but the price seems too high. If you find the same, I would consider doing a bit of market research estimating how much people use the library at areas particularly far from the library, and estimating a price you would need to make it work with batched deliveries (kind of like garbage day, your library day is...). Then set your price based on that and see if it takes off.
- alisonkisk 6y ago
  It costs about the same as food delivery and shop delivery.
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your reply and interest. Yes, we do see batch pickup being ideal for us and driver to be profitable.

netizen-9748 6y ago

Nothing displays with JavaScript disabled. Nothing on the landing page needed JavaScript, it was all text. The mechanism that actually did load the text broke my method of web dark mode. I gave up and left because it was a pain in the ass. I do have one question though, does the service cost money for deliveries?

Lurebees 6y ago
Thanks for making the attempt. It works fine without JavaScript disabled. Is there a reason you have disabled it? Yes, it does cost money to delivery your books. However, your library books are free of cost (taxpayer funds).
- netizen-9748 6y ago
  I'm aware it works fine without js disabled, but my question is why I need to load some js libraries to display a wall of text and a button. Most websites still display text and allow you to read without having js enabled, I keep it disabled by default to block tracking and fingerprinting.
  - Lurebees 6y ago
    Make sense. Thank you for the feedback.
- bluntfang 6y ago
  > Is there a reason you have disabled it? is there a reason to require javascript?

_Microft 6y ago

How does delivery work? Is it by car or by bike? At fixed times or on demand? Since the pandemic started here, the local library has partnered with bicycle couriers for delivery of books. They even worked out a way to be subsidized by the city to make delivery more affordable for the customers. This is in Germany though, and our denser cities seem to be more suited to bike couriers than sprawling American cities might be.

Lurebees 6y ago
Thank you so much for your reply and interest. Our drivers would need a cars since books can be heavy and majority of the customer will place large numbers of holds. We have three different orders customers can put in. Pickup only, pickup/return and return only. Each order is 6.50. Local libraries around the US don't have the budget or capacity to start delivery service for the entire county. Our tax money doesn't stretch that far when it comes to library services.

blatherard 6y ago

How do you handle returning books? Is there another charge for that, and how does pickup work?

Lurebees 6y ago
Thank you for your reply and interest. We have three different orders our customer can place. 1. Pickup only from library $5.99 2. Pickup from library & Drop off books to library $5.99 3. Drop off only to library $5.99

chovybizzass 6y ago

$7 to deliver and $7 to return, may as well buy the book or get a kindle.

dexterdog 6y ago
I can mail a book across the country for much less. Sure it's probably at a loss to the USPS z but I should be able to do a local delivery or pickup for a fraction of that esp if you could somehow tie in the local post office.
- tyingq 6y ago
  Especially cheap because of the USPS media mail rates: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Media-Mail-Book-Rate https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Media-Mail-Book-Rate
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your reply and interest. We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone. Why buy a book if you can rent one from your tax money to local libraries. Why put others at loss, if you can create jobs for people who enjoy working in gig economy.
egypturnash 6y ago
Hopefully that’s $7 to pick up/return an entire load of held books, not just one. I know when I was a kid my library card was constantly maxed out on how many books I could have out simultaneously, I think like 20 or 30? We’d go to the library pretty much weekly and bring back ones I’d read, along with the occasional book I’d decided to not finish, or ones I’d just never started on, and I’d get about that many new-to-me ones out.
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your reply and interest. There are libraries that allows you to put in hold for up to 50 books depending on the availability of books. There are two types of orders. One is just a pick up from library and other is pick/drop. Yes, our customer need to let us know the quantities of books being returned to library. I have 4 kids under the age of six. So we pretty much put alot of books on hold every week. Utilizing our tax money! We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone.

faitswulff 6y ago

As soon as COVID is over, I’m planning to bring my kids to the library in person because it’s a whole experience. Do you have any plans beyond COVID for keeping the service running?

fiftyacorn 6y ago
I grew up in Dunfermline, which was Andrew Carnegies birthplace, and was one of the first places to have a Carnegie library. It was/is an amazing library - in fact i got most of my uni books on loan there I used it a lot growing up - and make a point of using libraries even over buying books because i think access to libraries is so important and when people don't use libraries it will be used as an excuse to defund them
- Lurebees 6y ago
  Thank you so much for your interest and reply. I 100% believe that everyone should have access to local libraries.

Abishek_Muthian 6y ago

Congratulations OP. If you could find a way to deliver books for rent in small towns of Tier2/3 cities where there are no proper libraries then you solve problems like 'I don't have access to a proper library in my city'[1] posted on my problem validation platform. You're still welcomed to explain how Lurebees solves their problem. [1]https://needgap.com/problems/33-i-dont-have-access-to-a-proper-library-in-my-city https://needgap.com/problems/33-i-dont-have-access-to-a-prop... (Disclaimer: I created this platform).

alisonkisk 6y ago
Enough. Please stop spamming your site on every tangential thread.
- Abishek_Muthian 6y ago
  How can it be spam or tangential when the person in that thread is asking exactly what OP is building and I'm sharing that to help OP reach their target customers? Everyone shares their experience, subjective/objective opinions on OT here on HN and I did the same. Today there were several solutions related to the problems in my platform . Sometimes months go by where I never shared the platform and sometimes there are days like this when I can share something which I felt was valuable to OP. I'm sorry that you felt it to spammy, I'll limit my shares.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]

williamjackson 6y ago

This sounds like a lovely service, but my library requires the cardholder to be present when checking out books. My father tells stories of living in Las Vegas in the late 70s when the local public library already provided this service for free to all patrons.

Lurebees 6y ago
Thank you so much for your interest and reply. This can change in future due to demand of books delivery.

hycaria 6y ago

Part of the pleasure is simply going there and shuffling through books. I think many of us will have such fond memories as children. Instead we now promote all possible services to the doorstep. Delivery people get paid minimum wage doing this kind of ship. Customers don’t even see the cost accumulated of all those delivery services. All this so that everyone stays at home and never ever meet people living next door, or even worse, stand in a line for two minutes to checkout books and have to go through the purgatory of smiling to the librarians working there. I hate it so so much. I hate that other privileged white software dev as I am continuously stumble upon such ideas and see them as great, when it kills communities even more.

objectivetruth 6y ago
All of these comments are perfectly valid once the pandemic is completely over. Until then, this attitude is pretty dismissive of the underpaid library workers that have to stand there and breathe in the virus that the public is bringing in. Most libraries are only offering curbside pickup right now in an effort to protect the staff.
Mediterraneo10 6y ago
"Part of the pleasure is simply going there and shuffling through books." The new "libraries of the future" that are being built tend to hide most of the books in closed stacks. You kind of already have to know what you are looking for, so that you can put in a request to have the book brought from the stacks to the reservation shelf. Even when libraries these days are intentionally being built as a space for the community to meet (like Helsinki’s Oodi library), books are a pretty small part of their overall mission.

bergstromm466 6y ago

> 4. By placing order with Lurebees, you agree to have library books picked up by Lurebees drivers and deliver to your house address. So basically a (soon to be VC funded) Uber-like gig economy delivery app for renting books? For $7 it's a service only for the rich, while also putting gig workers at risk. I'm not saying it's a terrible idea, I'm just tired of seeing another rentierist middleman app that dresses up a simple protocol and exploits the working class. "Exploitation, now available from your local library!"

Lurebees 6y ago
Thank you so much for your reply and interest. We are currently working on reducing the price to make it more affordable for everyone. As for the risk, we do care for our driver and would not put them on any risk. I'm very sorry about your feeling on middleman. As for our drivers, they have the ability to make significant amount of money from one library pickup. For example, if there are 20 orders to be picked from one library this can generate significant amount of pay in one library stop. Local libraries around the US don't have the budget or capacity to start delivery service for the entire county. Our tax money doesn't stretch that far when it comes to library services. However, there are libraries that do have delivery service, but its only for patrons with permanent disability or other limitation.