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Roger Hicks

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In the last two or three years, a wonderful institution has appeared where I live: telephone kiosks converted to libraries. They take out the 'phone and stick in a few shelves, and anyone is free to take or bring books. There are two in Loudun and one in St. Jean de Sauves, and the mayor of our village has already reserved the old telephone kiosk in the Place Coligny and says it will be converted "soon".

Do these things exist in the US too?

I should perhaps add that both of the ones in Loudun are within 1-2 minutes' walk of a public toilet, and that the one in our village will be too: another example of something that appears to be disappearing from the UK, but also saving the mini-libraries from the traditional subsidiary use of UK 'phone boxes.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
In the last two or three years, a wonderful institution has appeared where I live: telephone kiosks converted to libraries. They take out the 'phone and stick in a few shelves, and anyone is free to take or bring books. There are two in Loudun and one in St. Jean de Sauves, and the mayor of our village has already reserved the old telephone kiosk in the Place Coligny and says it will be converted "soon".

Do these things exist in the US too?
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Yes, there is a popular movement in the US to put a decorative library box in your residential front yard with books. Walk or drive by and help yourself. No government involved.
 
ptpdprinter said:
Yes, there is a popular movement in the US to put a decorative library box in your residential front yard with books. Walk or drive by and help yourself. No government involved.
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Interesting. Thanks. Do they exist in public spaces too? (I.e, not private front yards?)

Cheers,

R.
 
We have several in store lobbies in rural southern Lancaster County, Pa. Here the program is being run by the public library and the school district. Anyone can borrow, or take, a book and either bring it back or not. The program also accepts donations from anyone. It's been going for a couple of years and is quite popular.
 
presspass said:
We have several in store lobbies in rural southern Lancaster County, Pa. Here the program is being run by the public library and the school district. Anyone can borrow, or take, a book and either bring it back or not. The program also accepts donations from anyone. It's been going for a couple of years and is quite popular.
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Thanks. I don't know who runs the ones round here.

Cheers,

R.
 
Roger Hicks said:
Fascinating, thanks: a site dedicated to making money out of people giving things away! Does anyone know of any other approaches in the USA?
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Most of the little libraries I have seen have been put together by the property owners. I don't see why you have to be negative about people providing alternatives for the handyman challenged. At least tax dollars are not involved. As usual, none of this discussion has anything to do with photography.
 
ptpdprinter said:
At least tax dollars are not involved. As usual, none of this discussion has anything to do with photography.
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And considering that you have continued this trend so admirably, tax dollars per se are not a bad thing-

https://www.currentaffairs.org/2018/07/why-libraries-are-amazing

Roger, another common thing in areas that have a density of people living and walking is the sidewalk giveaway (and yes, this also happens in suburbs and rural areas). You take one or more objects that you are finished with and simply place it on the sidewalk. It will usually disappear within a day; if not the polite thing to do is bring the object inside and dispose of another way. Shoes, books, furniture, kitchen items, framed images and paintings, etc.

You need a certain density of foot traffic for this to work smoothly- cities and the 'downtown' areas of smaller towns. Most Americans live in areas where walking the local streets is not typical. And oh yeah, you need actual sidewalks to put items on, and that is not standard in large chunks of American suburbs.
 
It's not the USA but...

our local train station has a community library... all free of course including internet access. The trend is to use small community centers rather than huge (and costly) libraries... the book-mobile can be found at smaller train stations on a regular schedule. And not to forget free online e-books, reading has never been easier... read a book today.
 
librarians generally roll their eyes at Little Free Libraries because they're corporatized, bougie versions of what public libraries already do.

https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/the-case-against-little-free-libraries/523533/

Jane Schmidt and Jordan Hale, "Little Free Libraries®: Interrogating the impact of the branded book exchange"

for a loooong time, libraries have been setting up public kiosks and book mobiles to make books available in places that are more convenient, especially for underserved communities.


LAPL in Pershing Square, ca. 1937


LAPL Traveling Branch in Chatsworth, 1949

nowadays, public libraries are making unstaffed book exchanges and kiosks.


Milwaukee Public Library vending machine


public book exchange in frankfurt, germany
 
There is one out on the sidewalk in Hanover NH that I know of. I often visit one a few blocks away from my house. Here in VT they are often made to look like the house they are in front of. My nearby one is a teeny Victorian, painted to match, with the gingerbread and fish scale shingles too.
 
Spotted in Brunswick, Maine last month.

_MG_6926.jpg
 
There is one on the town green in Lyme NH. It's been there for as long as I can remember. We also have a small library at work where folks donate books and one may borrow or keep the books. Kind of a recycle thing. To stay on topic with the forum, I donated some photography books to the work library.

Steve
 
Seems a common feature in the reception area of vacation resorts. Books, videos...

The Little Free Library and similar are growing in popularity in my rural town. There are half a dozen or so within walking distance.

As to setting things out on the curb to be taken... well, we don't have a curb or even a sidewalk at our house. But we put a well-used office chair out on the edge of the lawn with a sign saying 'take me' and it was gone the next day!
 
skopar steve said:
There is one on the town green in Lyme NH. It's been there for as long as I can remember. We also have a small library at work where folks donate books and one may borrow or keep the books. Kind of a recycle thing. To stay on topic with the forum, I donated some photography books to the work library.

Steve
Click to expand...

I've been there, and donated a few items many years ago. My ex's mother was a librarian in Fairlee and I was lucky to get first pick on a few books taken out of circulation, including a few very dated "creative" photography manuals.


Here in Seattle, my street has no fewer than three Little Free Libraries, and we're two blocks from a SPL branch. I can't imagine professional librarians being particularly opposed to them—among numerous paperback novels, I find a lot of interesting nonfiction long since out of circulation in the municipal libraries. Owing to the nature of how theyre maintained, these little booths are usually on a post in the parking strip (there's a lot of terms for this nationally and internationally: the bit of grass between the sidewalk and curb). Nominally, the space is SDOT property but maintained by homeowners. I haven't seen one in a totally public space such as a park yet.

SPL does have a Bookmobile, but it serves primarily elder care facilities and preschools rather than the general public.
 
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