Little Free Library

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 better at handling magazines. Some see a lot of book movement, some much less. These factors influence how I move books around from one to another.

Suggestions on building a little free library: 1) By far the number one priority: Waterproof. If it's not waterproof, in my opinion you're actually doing a disservice to the community, rather than a service. And have an angled roof for proper drainage. 2) Don't make it too deep. Definitely not more than 18 inches. Probably 15 inches is a good depth. 3) If you can, make two levels: One level for tall books, another level for short books. 4) Don't make it too tiny, because then it's hard to get books in and out of. 5) A good solid stand so it doesn't fall over. 6) A good latch that will resist wind. Magnetic is good. I also like to have a magnet plus a hook that can be used for backup. Also with time it's nice to have the second option in case the shape changes a little and the magnet doesn't work. 7) You might try making a mockup out of cardboard so you can see the physical size and get a sense of how many books will fit. 8) Not a building tip, but: Try to arrange the books to look nice. If you have few books you can face some of them to attract attention.

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.

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...

These can show up on Google Maps, which is how I found out about them.

I once had time to kill in a neighboring town and so I thought I'd check out the local library, and a marker saying "Little Free Library" showed up nearby.

Imagine my confusion when I ended up in the middle of a residential area and did not find anything resembling a library. I cruised back and forth in the neighborhood, to the point I started worrying about looking suspicious, before I saw this little box on a corner and then it clicked.

Now I see them everywhere.

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

It's fun to be on vacation and go visit one of these. They're usually not in tourist areas and are likely to be in well established neighborhoods that a a different vibe than home. Also fun to read and come home with some random book that anchors you to that trip.

I've known Rick since 2001 and was around when he & Todd kicked this off. We've both since moved and it's been a pleasure watching this take off (inter)nationally. In parens b/c I can only verify the "national" part, personally. :) I look for them whenever I visit new places

Last time I went looking for LFL's, the map data quality was terrible. There's no way to flag a defunct location as defunct, since only the "owner" can edit their own entry. If they don't respond, it's a permanent ghost on the map.

I've taken to mapping them in OSM using amenity=public_bookcase (and amenity=food_sharing for the similar little free pantry). This way anyone can update the entries over the years.

These are a great way to spread something you appreciate with the world. I once bought a stack of 30 or so well-used Calvin and Hobbes books and would regularly seed a few every now and then.

Just this morning I added several copies of books 1,2 & 3 of the Wheel Of Time series to a random Little Free Library because I had so much fun reading them and I hoped others would as well.

Hoping this continues.

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, …

Built one of these [an oversized version] the first year I moved into my house (charter 76305), and it's been a hot spot as children (and adults) walk by it every day.

Stephen King and Patterson books tend to go quickly, as well as science fiction.

Luckily, I've been able to have a good mix of children, teenage, and adult books recycled through.

Would highly recommend having one installed/setup on a well travel sidewalk/park.

There are several in my neighborhood, and I enjoy patronizing them. The only difficulty is the same books sit in them for months at a time. What might work is having a backing store of books, and rotate them through the library once a month or so.

We have probably 30 of these within 10 miles and it's great. Perfect excuse to go for a walk, get a book, read it, and then return it to one of the others.

I have been dropping my puzzle books [1] into many of these in my area. It is encouraging to see they are almost always gone when I return.

[1] https://www.kakurokokoro.com/

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

In Australia it's 'Street Library'

https://streetlibrary.org.au/

Do they have other names in different countries?

I find these to be cute, romantic almost. But I have never found anything worth borrowing. I wonder what is the real impact in terms of additional books read. I do love the concept of spreading knowledge in the neighborhood. I'd be curious about other similar approaches.

A great project for any student taking wood shop (our daughter built our LFL last semester).

These started in a tiny Wisconsin town called Hudson, where I grew up. The only time we’d ever be front page on HN :)

We have one at the local park nearby. A neighbor also has one in her front yard. It's a really neat concept!

I’m convinced people pick these over to resell the books in some cities.

Are these not hell on the books, being outside and all? It's generally pretty high humidity where I live, but I still see these. I'd half expect all the books in them to be moldy.

We have a makeshift library like this in my apartment complex, and our municipality have one in our town. It’s cool stuff!

This seems like the worst of both worlds. If you don't care about the social/interpersonal aspect of reading then just use the internet. If you do, go to a real library.

Seems to be entirely a boredom-fueled bird-watching project for the maintainer. It's not a "nice thing" at all it's an out of place paternalistic nudge that makes teens feel unsafe in their neighborhood.

The only nice things that comes from them are teens "blowing them up", artists vandalizing them or homeless/vagrants selling the books.

This is very cool, they are a common sight in some cities in Germany and I always love checking through them. I have to admit I expected some OSS library when I clicked the link, I need to touch grass more.

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.

My wife loves these, and tries to donate a book to them when she can.

I think this is very cool and a brilliant idea, there are a few of these in my area where I have borrowed and contributed books too.

It's astounding to me that there isn't a cheap mass-produced e-ink device meant for kids to fill the need of paper books yet. We got mandated laptops in the hands of schoolchildren before this!

Not wanting to too negative, but this is just a rich person affection. You don't see these in low income neighborhoods for a reason. It can only exist where there isn't a real need, because if this was meant to fulfill a need, it would be wholly inadequate. It's like all those ventilator projects people were making during COVID. Feel good busy work, most of it went straight into the trash.