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Little Free Library

littlefreelibrary.org

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Re: Little Free Library

#61

Post by lazyasciiart »

pasquinelli wrote: post #43
chihuahua wrote: post #41

There are people who are angry at Little Free Libraries because they have somehow convinced themselves that they are a plot to drive regular public libraries out of business. Absolute madness.

that's wild because public libraries aren't in business to begin with. they're a public good, they exist to give the public something, not to extract profit from them.

Better wording might be "to replace public libraries as a provider of free reading material in the public consciousness, leading to the reduction of funding and the loss of all the services a real public library provides, including a much wider and better source of books"

Re: Little Free Library

#62

Post by lazyasciiart »

dartharva wrote: post #42
foxglacier wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Color is a problem, isn't it? Also, they have software and as soon as there's software, there's an explosion of over-complication that raises the minimum age limit for being able to use them. This is a bit of a rant but I have a lamp/flashlight that my 4yo can't use because it's too complicated. It has 3 buttons which control 2 separate lights built into the same device. You can spend all day pressing buttons and mak…

Is it? Kids in India learn from black-and-white books in school all the same as colored ones. I think we used to have this UX problem sorted in the pre-smartphone days. Remember the classic Kindle with tactile keys? It's just a matter of design.

Sure, but do they read them for fun? Would they choose them over a paper book in color? There's no point providing every kid with something they don't want. Making them available, perhaps.

Re: Little Free Library

#63

Post by arjie »

Saw one of these at an Airbnb I rented in Bernal Heights for my parents to stay a few years ago. Neat little Mathematics textbook I used to teach my wife a little of this stuff. They're a loud signal of the neighbourhood. This one had some fun textbooks and romance books but in less nice parts of the city the ones I have seen are usually empty. Presumably, they are subject to the universal law I'm familiar with from the India of my childhood that anything that can be converted to money (no matter how lossy the mechanism) will be so converted.

I like the idea and books aren't something I value holding once I've read them so we put some sci-fi in back along with the textbook.

Amusingly, I saw them in the news a few years later under absolutely hilarious circumstances when the WSJ reported[0] that SF was fining some homeowners $1400 for a Little Free Library they'd placed outside their home after a neighbour complained. It seems to have had a happy ending with those people chasing it down till an ordinance was passed[1] permitting these.

0: https://www.wsj.com/articles/san-francisco-fights-urban-diso...

1: https://littlefreelibrary.org/2024/02/san-francisco-stewards...

Re: Little Free Library

#64

Post by jcynix »

Wikipedia lists them by country, and with pictures, for example

French: [Boîte à livres](https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C3%AEte_%C3%A0_livres?wprov...)

German: [Öffentlicher Bücherschrank](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96ffentlicher_B%C3%BCchers...)

and many more countries. They all need a caretaker, or else they degenerate into rubbish.

In France I stumbled upon one during a holiday trip, it was located in an old phone booth. Hmm, I must have a picture somewhere in my photo collection, …

Re: Little Free Library

#65

Post by alexdbird »

purplejacket wrote: post #39

I had my handyman build one of these in front of our house. Also, I make a hobby of biking around to circulate books between different little free libraries in my extended neighborhood. I've found some amazing books over the years, things that were very different from my typical prior experience of books. I like this aspect, that it can be eye opening. Each little free library has it's own style of books. Some are be…

Definitely don't make it too shallow either. People are forever jamming oversize books in ours and damaging the doors/hinges/catch.

Re: Little Free Library

#66

Post by lukan »

ddtaylor wrote: post #59
not_the_fda wrote: post #18

I build these and have one at my house. Its been interesting. Had some teenagers try to blow it up with fireworks. Have to constantly remove proselytizing, mostly christian, pamphlets from it. Had to buy a stamp https://littlefreelibrary.myshopify.com/products/self-inking... so drug addicts don't clear it out sell the books to buy smack. Other than hat its been mostly self sustaining.

Drug addicts mess with them in most of the states I have been to, including Oregon, Washington, California, Maryland and New York.

Ah man, even my hometown in germany, which I consider to have a big drug problem - somehow manages to have these libaries(usually in old telephone cells) without junkies clearing them out. Apparently things can be worse it seems, what a shame.

Re: Little Free Library

#67

Post by lukan »

jcynix wrote: post #64

Wikipedia lists them by country, and with pictures, for example French: [Boîte à livres]( https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bo%C3%AEte_%C3%A0_livres?wprov... ) German: [Öffentlicher Bücherschrank]( https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%96ffentlicher_B%C3%BCchers... ) and many more countries. They all need a caretaker, or else they degenerate into rubbish. In France I stumbled upon one during a holiday trip, it was located in…

"In France I stumbled upon one during a holiday trip, it was located in an old phone booth"

Those are pretty common in (eastern) germany, they were empty for a while after the telephones went out of service and then before demolishing many got turned into little libaries. I really like the idea and exchanged many books.

Re: Little Free Library

#68

Post by [deleted] »

mtndew4brkfst wrote: post #36
ex-aws-dude wrote: post #27

I love the idea but whenever I look in these it’s always the weirdest books and never anything I’ve heard of I guess that is expected though as the unwanted ones build up over time

The ones in my neighborhood are full of religious evangelism titles or bad self-help books.

[deleted]

Re: Little Free Library

#69

Post by WillAdams »

Are Scholastic book orders no longer a thing for children?

When my father retired from the service, he moved to the second poorest county in Virginia in terms of tax base, and the library at that time was a carrel of used paperbacks in the courthouse of the old library --- for each Scholastic book order, my teacher would open the box, remove a couple of books for other students, then hand me the box (she would also remove the promotional poster for the classroom, even though it was always my order which qualified for it).

Things got better when I got to high school, since that library was somewhat better stocked (in particular, a cousin of Andre Norton's lived in the county, received books from her, and then donated them to the library, which I will eternally be grateful of).

Fortunately, since then, the county has managed to build and stock an actual library building.

“Libraries will get you through times of no money better than money will get you through times of no libraries.” ― Anne Herbert

Re: Little Free Library

#70

Post by lelandfe »

arjie wrote: post #63

Saw one of these at an Airbnb I rented in Bernal Heights for my parents to stay a few years ago. Neat little Mathematics textbook I used to teach my wife a little of this stuff. They're a loud signal of the neighbourhood. This one had some fun textbooks and romance books but in less nice parts of the city the ones I have seen are usually empty. Presumably, they are subject to the universal law I'm familiar with from…

Gosh, and what a cute one too! This is what a community is all about, ghastly to complain about this.
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