How it works

What you need to start

Three things, none of which costs anything: an account, at least one book you are willing to lend, and an indication of where you are — which the site immediately turns into an area, never an address.

No card details, no subscription, and no minimum number of books. One title on the shelf and you are in: you can search what other people have, and they can ask for yours.

A loan from beginning to end

It is worth following one all the way through once, because nearly every question comes from a step people did not know existed.

1. The book goes on the shelf

Whoever owns a copy adds it with title and author — or with the ISBN, which fills in almost every field by itself — and decides whether to make it available. A book can sit on the shelf while temporarily unavailable: that covers rereading it, or having it already out on loan to somebody else.

2. Someone finds it

Search works on two axes at once: how close it is and how much it resembles what you usually read. Results are ordered by distance, and distance is shown in bands — "within ~300 m", "within ~1 km" — never in exact metres. A precise figure, repeated across several books, would let someone work back to the owner's position.

3. The request arrives

Whoever wants the book sends a loan request. At that point — and only at that point — a conversation opens between the two people: before the request, neither can see the other's contact details. The owner may accept or decline, and declining requires no explanation.

4. You agree and you meet

Date, time and place are settled between the two of you in the conversation. The site does not arrange meetings, does not suggest addresses and takes no part in the agreement. The practical advice is always the same: somewhere public, in daylight.

5. The loan runs

The book is marked as on loan with an agreed return date. The day before it falls due, a reminder reaches whoever is holding it; if the date passes, the alert goes to both parties. These are reminders, not penalties: they exist to make the conversation happen while it is still easy.

6. The book comes back, and a trace remains

On closing, both people can leave a rating. Ratings are double-blind: yours stays invisible until the other party has rated too, and then both appear together. That is how you avoid ratings given out of fear of retaliation, which would inform nobody.

What Serenlibrità does not do

Saying it plainly heads off most misunderstandings.

• It does not ship books. No courier, no packaging: the exchange happens in person, which is why the radius is small.
• It does not buy or sell. This is not a second-hand marketplace. No money passes between the two people, and the site takes no cut because there is nothing to take a cut of.
• It does not act as guarantor. If a book does not come back, Serenlibrità cannot refund you and cannot recover it. What it can do is give people who behaved well a verifiable trace, so the next loan starts with less suspicion.
• It does not show your address. Never, to anyone, on any page.
• It does not sell its users' data. Site statistics are aggregated and cookieless.

Frequently asked questions

What does it cost?

Nothing. The service is free, running costs are carried by the person who maintains it, and public pages may carry advertising. Anyone who wants to can leave a voluntary contribution, but no feature is reserved for those who do.

Who can see where I live?

Nobody. What the site shows is a point shifted at random between 150 and 300 metres from the real position, in any direction — and the shift is computed once, not on every view. The real coordinate is never stored anywhere. There is a guide explaining this in full, including why redrawing the shift on every glance would be worse than not doing it.

What if the book never comes back?

It happens rarely, and the route back is a sequence of ordered steps that almost always recovers it: a first reminder written before you are annoyed, then a shorter one, then a final message that explicitly gives permission to say "I lost it". The detail is in the guide on when a loan goes wrong. The general principle sits further upstream, though: only share books you could buy again without minding.

Do I have to upload my whole library?

No, and it is not a good idea. Ten or fifteen chosen titles work better than a hundred and twenty uploaded in bulk, because every line on the shelf is a promise: if someone asks, that book has to be found and handed over. The guide on what to share goes into it.

Is it legal to lend a book I bought?

Yes. The publisher's distribution right is exhausted by the first sale: from that moment the copy is yours, and you may lend it, give it away or resell it. This holds for print, not for e-books, and the guide on the subject explains why.

What happens if I withdraw location consent?

Your copies drop out of search results and public pages immediately. There is no cached version still circulating, and you need not ask anyone: withdrawal is a switch, not a request.

Can I delete my account?

Yes, from your profile, at any time. Deletion anonymises your data and unpublishes your copies. You can also export what the site holds about you first, as a readable file.

Is the site only available in Italian?

No: Italian and English, switchable from the menu at the top. The service started in Italy, but there is nothing specifically Italian about the way it works.