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Talking about those bookshelf cabinets people put up outside their home or business that looks like an oversized mailbox or birdhouse, big enough to hold a couple dozen books, where the idea is you can take a book for free or leave a book you are finished with for others to read.
Does anyone have/maintain one of those? If so, I'm just curious how much traffic it actually gets. How often do people leave or take books? And which do people do more (leave or take)?
There are two in my neighborhood, erected and maintained by our HOA, and they're used all the time. I've donated several books to it and read a few, too. It's an fascinating window into what interests our community shares.
My neighbor does one, but it's for kids books, since she is a kids reading specialist. It is in her back yard, but it seems to get a surprising amount of traffic. There are several in my town, but none of the others are super-convenient to me. But I think my town is particularly amenable to these Little Free Libraries because a lot of people read a lot.
In my old town, I don't think they would have been as successful.
Cochise County started a "free book box" program and installed large, decorated chests in several unincorporated areas. My friends of the library group was asked if we would monitor a nearby chest. This program has been a huge success. From our chest, 3,000 adult and children's books were supplied to residents within a 5-month period. Many times the chest has also been filled with donations made by the residents.
I've never even heard or seen it until a couple of weeks ago when my husband and I were visiting Toronto. We were going to eat at a restaurant with no parking space and had to park on a side road a block away in a residential area. We parked in front of a lovely cottage style house with a box filled with books. I was inspecting the titles in the box curiously, they seemed pretty diverse, from romance, how-to manuals, biographies, children books, etc. Fascinating!
Glad to hear it's happening in the US too (though I haven't seen it anywhere in my neighborhood).
Across the the Big Thicket National Preserve Visitor Center in Kountze, TX - there is one - I saw it yesterday for the first time. One of the Ranger's maintains it and I borrowed 2 books and plan on returning them with a few more of my own. I love these lending libraries. There was one outside of the Library at the Northern AZ VA Healthcare Center when I worked there.
i've had one out front for 4 years now.... and i live on a very small street, ends in a cul-de-sac.... though we do get crossover traffic from walkers.... and i seem to have a steady stream using it.... PLUS??? dear to my heart is poetry, so i installed one of those realtor metal boxes you see in front of a house that is for sale, it holds all the specifications of that property.... and every week i copy off a favorite poem (kinda like i do right here on CD forum, i have a little poetry thread where i post fave poems) because i think we all know how poetry gets short-shrift in terms of popularity in this country, and I firmly believe that if people are just EXPOSED to it, you provide it, they will come!!!!!! I get a nice steady stream of traffic right here on CDForum with my little poetry thread, don't hear from too many people, but at least 70 people seem to be coming back and reading the thread, and obviously they are getting something from it, or they wouldn't be returning. My LITTLE FREE LIBRARY also gets donations from people who are actively using it, and now i have a steady archive of books i can rotate in!!!!!! I am elderly, don't have a lot of money for books any more, pretty much can only buy a book when the thrift stores offer 25 cent book sales, lol..... so the people using my Library are actively donating the more recent fiction and non-fiction titles. I have a whole wall of books in my house that I also cull books from, and I also save the bottom shelf for kids books. Here are the websites if you would like to encourage more reading, for afterall, as my bumper sticker states on my car: Books, let's face, are the most wonderful things on earth. Plus here is the website that gives you all in the info you need to build your own, if you feel it is too pricey to go through the LITTLE FREE LIBRARY website!!! So get going!!!!! order or make a little lending library of your own.... you will be a mentsch, a person doing good works, and a boon to mankind!!!!!!! .............. https://littlefreelibrary.org/ and to make your own: https://www.thesprucecrafts.com/litt...-plans-1357149
Last edited by ceiligrrl; 09-14-2018 at 08:16 AM..
"Bol believed the now-ubiquitous little boxes of books — and the neighbors who cared for them — could change a block, a city, the world. So he brought them to front yards all over, often installing them himself. Known for his wild optimism and keen business sense, the Little Free Library founder died Thursday morning, just weeks after he was found to have pancreatic cancer. He was 62."
Talking about those bookshelf cabinets people put up outside their home or business that looks like an oversized mailbox or birdhouse, big enough to hold a couple dozen books, where the idea is you can take a book for free or leave a book you are finished with for others to read.
Does anyone have/maintain one of those? If so, I'm just curious how much traffic it actually gets. How often do people leave or take books? And which do people do more (leave or take)?
There is 2 that I know of in town. 1 at the primary school and 1 beside the college...there may be more but I don't usually pay attention to them.
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