Deepak's Book Rounds

Readers photograph their handwritten book requests, the app reads the address, and the lender gets the quickest order to ride to each home.

Who this is for

Deepak Kulkarni runs Pustaka Mane, a lending library in two rooms off Station Road in Dharwad. He has about 140 paying members, mostly retired teachers and college students, and delivers on his scooter with his nephew Sunil. On a Saturday morning he is standing at the counter with nineteen folded slips from the drop box, trying to work out whether Saptapur or Malmaddi comes first.

How the job is done today

Members write the book names and their address on a scrap of paper and push it into a tin box by the door, or send a photo of the slip on WhatsApp. Deepak copies each one into a long notebook, pulls the books, and stacks them on the floor in piles by area. Then he guesses an order. Sunil calls when he cannot read a house number. Twice a month someone gets a book meant for a neighbour, and a new member who wrote only 'near the temple' waits a week.

The screens, in order

1. Send your request — Lets a member or a first-time reader photograph their handwritten slip and send it to the library without making an account.
2. Is this right — Shows the reader what the app read from their handwriting, with their address as a pin on a map, so they can fix it before it reaches Deepak.
3. Today's slips — Gives Deepak every request that came in, with the photo beside the typed version, so he can pull the books and mark any title he does not have.
4. The round — Shows Deepak or Sunil the homes in the order that makes the shortest ride, with one tap to open directions to the next stop.
5. Handed over — Lets the rider mark each home as delivered or not at home, so the member sees where their books are.

What it keeps track of

• Requests — photo of the slip, the book names as read, who sent it, their phone number, which day, delivered or not
• Readers — name, phone number, confirmed address and map pin, member or first-timer, books they have out
• Books — title, author, how many copies, which copies are out and with whom
• Rounds — which day, who rode, the homes in order, what happened at each stop

The one decision that matters

Who checks the handwriting: the reader who wrote it, or Deepak. If Deepak corrects every slip, the reader sends a photo and walks away, but Deepak ends up guessing at addresses of strangers he has never met, and a wrong guess means a wasted ride across town. If the reader confirms, they see what the app read and drag a pin to their gate before sending. That takes the reader half a minute and they are the only person who actually knows where they live. Go with the reader confirming. Deepak should only fix book titles, which he knows better than anyone.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out fines, due dates and membership payments. Deepak already tracks money in his notebook and at the counter over UPI, and it works. Leave out picking up returns on the same round too. The first version should answer one question, which door comes next, and answer it well before it tries to run the whole library.

How you would know it worked

On a Saturday, Sunil finishes the round without phoning Deepak once to ask where a house is, and no member calls to say they got someone else's books.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run a small lending library in Dharwad with about 140 members and I deliver books on my scooter with my nephew. People write the books they want and their address on a paper slip, and I want them to be able to photograph that slip in an app and send it to me without signing up for anything. The app should read the handwriting, show them what it read, and ask them to put a pin on the map at their gate before sending. On my side I want a list of the day's requests with the photo next to the typed version so I can correct book names and mark anything I do not have. Then I want it to put all the homes in the quickest order for one scooter ride starting from my shop, with a button to open directions to the next stop, and a way for whoever is riding to mark each home as delivered or nobody home so the reader can see it.