Bob Dolby is our Parish Councellor who's brief was to find a use for the decommissioned BT box in The Square.  In his wisdom, he decided to keep a diary of events and this is it.  It is a work in progress - he never knows when the next request from the world media will arrive.

We will add to the diary as events occur.

Bob's Media Diary

It started on 12 November when Nicky Venning, the community correspondent for the Wells Journal parked in The Square. Nicky saw The Book Exchange, read the notice inside and contacted Janet Fisher. The following day she interviewed Jan and Bob Dolby, and wrote her story.

On 19 November the Wells Journal published the story. Later that day BBC Radio Somerset sent a reporter to interview Jan and Bob and the piece was broadcast the following day with an article appearing on the BBC website on 23 November.

25 November saw a photographer from Apex Picture News travelling from Exminster to photograph the kiosk. Their story was circulated widely and the following day the Daily Telegraph and the Sun carried the story. At 8.15 Bob was called by BBC Radio Essex for a live broadcast.

Then the floodgates opened. On the afternoon of 26 November film crews from ITV West and BBC Points West carried out filming and their stories were broadcast on 27 November.

The Press Association made contact on 29 November and Bob was interviewed by BBC Radio 4 for their national news.

The following day had live interviews with Jan for BBC Radio Wiltshire and Bob with BBC West Midlands, a visit from a Guardian reporter and contact from a major German news agency.

On to 1 December and Jan spoke with BBC America, and Bob with the BBC World Service and the Fosse Way Magazine.

Now we were going truly global. The influential German TV company ARD arranged to visit, Der Spiegel interviewed Sylvia Healey for an article and the Toronto Star phoned for an interview.

We used Google Alert to try to follow all the articles that were being published day by day. Links to many of these are available on the village website. From the Los Angeles Times to the Auckland Times with stories in Israel, Italy, Spain, France and Japan and numerous academic organisations – the saga of The Book Exchange has been exposed worldwide.

The most fascinating example was the arrival of a lady and gentleman from a Russian TV company. Their bosses had seen an article in a Moscow newspaper and they spent a happy day filming in the village.

Moving on to 2010 and we thought that interest had disappeared. January was quiet but on 4 February Bob had an interview with BBC Radio Somerset as part of an hour long discussion on the future of libraries.

On 8 February Bob had a phone call from a man with a very strong Australian accent. Thought it was a wind-up but it was genuine – a reporter from the ABC radio station in Adelaide. He phoned back the following evening and for 20 minutes the bemused commuters of South Australia were treated to a discussion on kiosks and libraries.

16 February saw a request for photos from The Future Laboratory – a think tank organisation. Apparently we are now “betapreneurs”.

17 February bought a request for information from a business colleague of a village resident now living in Derbyshire whose council were considering following our idea. Later in the month saw a similar request from a lady from Blagdon.

On 1 March Jan travelled to the BBC studios in Bristol to participate in a three-way discussion for BBC Radio Scotland.

On the same day a gentleman from The Literary Republic in Israel requested photographs.

The April edition of “Country Living” was on the newsstands in mid March and page 20 carried an article and photo with the title “Thinking outside the box”.

On 15 March a team from the Middle East Broadcast Centre will film a piece for transmission to some 50 million viewers in the Middle East.

And at the time of writing negotiations are underway for ITV1 to reuse the original ITV West film in a programme scheduled for transmission on a prime time Saturday evening.

So, our  “15 minutes of fame” was the combination of a happy accident when Nicky Venning  happened to park in The Square and wrote a story which her editor said “had legs” and the power of the World Wide Web to carry information across the globe. Jan and I would like to thank everyone who was interviewed or appeared in photos. It was truly a village venture.

The media interest in a story which provided an antidote to the usual gloom of daily news has now lessened, but The Book Exchange is there for all to use.

Bob Dolby