Thinking outside the box with little libraries

JSOnline ^ | 1-23-12 | Meg Jones

[afraidfortherepublic]

Madison - Alicia Rheal is an artist who lives on a quiet street within sight of the Capitol.

She's also a librarian.

Instead of rows and rows of bookshelves filled with Dewey Decimal System-categorized tomes, Rheal's library is decidedly low-tech and charming. No library cards are required. There are no fines. In fact, library users are encouraged to take any book they want and keep it.

Rheal is one of many caretakers of the growing phenomenon of Little Free Libraries - tiny boxes designed to promote literacy and the love of reading through free book exchanges. Each Little Free Library has a sign that says "Take a Book, Leave a Book," though it's not a requirement to do both.

Rheal has made three Little Free Libraries. The first one she constructed out of recycled materials left over from a studio built in her backyard, complete with a shingled roof and a glass window to keep the donated books dry. She's also making one from a discarded dollhouse to be donated for charity.

She installed her first Little Free Library outside her Madison home in October.

"It was great. All of our neighbors gathered in front of the house and were chatting about books," Rheal said as she sat on her front stoop with her dogs Aberdeen and Tin Tin.

The turnover of books has been impressive. On this day the library in front of Rheal's home included: Raymond Carver's "Ultramarine," "Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid" by Douglas Hofstadter, Hilary Clinton's "Living History" and Book 10 of Lemony Snicket's "A Series of Unfortunate Events."

[afraidfortherepublic]

This is a great idea. I want one, but I live on a busy road where there are few walkers. There is also a video at the link.

[afraidfortherepublic]

Wisconsin Free Library Ping

If you want on, or off, this Wisconsin interest ping list, just FReep mail me.

[afraidfortherepublic]

FTA: The Little Free Library movement started with a Hudson man who built one in the shape of a one-room schoolhouse in honor of his mother, a retired teacher, and now more than 400 have sprung up like mushrooms around the country and overseas. Wisconsin, though, is the hotbed of Little Free Libraries with more than 100, including many in Madison though only a couple in the Milwaukee area.

~snip~

“Our experience is when we get two, we get four and then we get eight,” said Todd Bol, co-founder of littlefreelibrary.org. “We haven’t put that much effort in Milwaukee, but it’s our next stomping ground.”

[afraidfortherepublic]

For more information on Little Free Libraries, go to www.littlefreelibrary.org.

[tbw2]

Our church did something similar - a free give/take library cart in the reception area. People coming and going can read the books between events or leave one and take one.

[ExCTCitizen]

Remember Newhart? Newhart was when Bob was the Vermont innkeeper, anyway they show the library of the town - 10 books. I guess the town had a little free library.

[DIRTYSECRET]

Nice. All over the world? Me thinks the rest of the world doesn’t need them. They read a lot more than us. Madison? It’s a university town.

[Explorer89]

Someone had a book swap box in the ladies’ restroom at work that I made plentiful use of. And for a higher tech version there is www.paperbackswap.com. I have been pretty happy with that, as well. You list the books you have that you are willing to part with, and if someone wants it, you mail it and get a credit, which can be redeemed for a book that YOU want. Pretty simple, and I was able to get some books that I wanted that were no longer available on amazon.

[Bobalu]

People are starting up free drive-in movies as well.

Just takes a cheap 20.00 FM transmitter to carry the audio to the radios in the cars, an LCD projector and a laptop with movies on it. One car puts the projector on the roof and aims at a white wall and everyone else in their cars can watch and hear the movie :-)

Great fun for the kids :-)

[pepperdog]

I found many free libraries in offices and sometimes in the rest rooms as an rv’er. Since one is living in such small quarters you can't keep every book, so take one and leave one. Mostly paperbacks but still great fun and so economical. Some places also had borrow and return movies that were donated by customers. No checkout, no money, just simple and effective.

[reed13k]

I’m such a book hog, I’m afraid I would be the guy to ruin it for everyone else. I suppose I could depart with the few duplicates I have as starter seed, but those would soon run out as I retain others I wanted to keep....

I still have all my text books from college 25 years back, including the ones my roommate was going to toss ($100 books straight into the garbage sigh)

Only issue is that the wife is getting on me about space....sigh.

[Daffynition]

[reed13k]

(Sheepishly with eyes downcast) ... I have books in languages that I don’t know ... and haven’t even thought of studying ... and I really want a library like this fella has - but I think I’d go with a roller ladder (I’d fall off the one he has there and besides you can ride on the roller ladders all around the room...) ;)

[fella]

This is kind of like the Free Bicycle thing that so many liberal towns have sunk money into, only to be surprised that all disappear in short order. They just can't grasp the idea that the ‘entitled’ when take everything you've got if you let them.

[Daffynition]

Sounds as if you might might be at a tipping point[beyond the rolling ladder phase] more into stacks...lots 'n lots of stacks. :)

[Reeses]

low-tech and charming

I bet the intellectual property creators don't find it charming. This is just P2P file sharing using dead tree technology. Because they maintain a physical presence the lawyers will have little trouble shutting down their "servers" and seizing their inventory.

If you want book content, you should support the creators and pay for it. We're not in China where all intellectual content creators go bankrupt. Some fringe P2P has its benefits, but content sharing shouldn't be so easy the average customer does it.

We have to have laws that support content creators. They need to make a living.

[Calvin Locke]

One [regional] talk show host always references his town's "Free Library" at the dump.

They have a sheltered area for books salvaged from recovering OCD book hoarders.

[afraidfortherepublic]

So, are you against tax supported public libraries too?

What about used book sales at St. Vincent de Paul and other charities?

[reed13k]

Stop it your making me drool... and cry... I might have enough for one of the tall ones these - provided they are one sided...

I actually have a house plan that I’ve drawn up that is my dream house. The wife pooh-poohs it, but I’m bound and determined that I’ll keep on until I have it built. There are two significant features that I won’t allowed to be taken out. The first is a large tatami room opening on to a garden (my wife is Japanese and I want to treat her to something special in our latter days) and the 2nd is a large two story library with an interior balcony overhanging the interior of the main entry to the room.

I plan to work out of that room consulting, reading, and writing well into old age... to do that of course I have to get back to work... Thanks for the pics Daffy.

[Reeses]

So, are you against tax supported public libraries too?

Yes, because they are obsolete and a waste of taxpayer money. Trading old books is fine but currently many book authors make less than minimum wage for creating content. If we want high quality content we have to find a way that quality creators can make a good living. Encouraging more widespread and common use of content without paying for it will destroy the industry. It's why no new intellectual content such as movies, video games, software, books, music, pharmaceuticals comes out of China. Is that what we want here?