'To borrow or to steal?' really shouldn't be the question, yet . . .

http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/sf/inspiration/the-community-bookcase-097020

The idea of a community shared bookcase seems cool and full of small town whimsy, but there are some who could (probably would) mess up the point of it by either keeping the books (without donating something to replace it) or by simply 'borrowing' the bookcase.
But the idea could work, depending on where the organic library is set up (and how secure the case is bolted to the ground . . .). I'm not always an optimist (and neither a pessimist), but I'd hope this would work more often than not.

Though,

I am very possessive of my own books . . .