
Little Free Library - hanifvirani
http://littlefreelibrary.org/
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afafsd
I've watched the evolution of a few of these things. My experience is that
even if people aren't _trying_ to be jerks then the quality of books
inevitably goes down over time as people take the things they find interesting
and replace them with things they find less interesting. You might think that
since different people find different things interesting that this might work
out in the end, but it doesn't seem to.

Add to this the fact that some people _are_ just jerks and will take books
without replacing them, plus a bunch of people who see this as an opportunity
to promote either their self-published books or their own political opinions,
and you get a bookshelf rapidly being denuded of popular books and filled up
with political tracts, dated "how to" books and obscure genre novels from the
1970s.

Compare this to, say, an ordinary public library, which allows you to freely
borrow any one of many thousands of well-catalogued books as long as you
return it in a few weeks.

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timdiggerm
So you're saying that curation can triumph over crowdsourcing.

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cpach
Well, public libraries also need funding in order to do their curation.

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chromanoid
Cool! In Hamburg there are such mini libraries in some busses
[http://www.hamburg.de/image/4027762/uncropped/690/518/bc2ce8...](http://www.hamburg.de/image/4027762/uncropped/690/518/bc2ce801e945acb192d536ee4d0ab6ef/sq/buecherbus-
bild.jpg) and as I see here we already have one little free library too :)
[http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_%C3%B6ffentlicher_B%C3%BC...](http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_%C3%B6ffentlicher_B%C3%BCcherschr%C3%A4nke)

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Jun8
"There is also a one-time payment of $34.95 per Library to receive a Steward’s
Packet of support materials and 1 official charter sign and number for your
Library."

For that amount you can get 20-30 used books at a library sale to stock your
little library.

~~~
davemel37
I buy all my used books at goodwill. Its cheap and they always have all the
popular books.

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samelawrence
There's one of these near where I live in Atlanta. I always love seeing new
books come in and out. Maybe I should stock it with some more technical
topics...

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mjhoy
I once found _Introduction to Algorithms_ in one, in Boston. I was impressed.

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ycombosnator
was downvoted for my previous comment, let me clarify, books are a known
vector for bed bugs. libraries are facing this problem all over. a friend of
mine worked at the columbia university library and had to go through freezing
process on returned books.

all i'm saying is, books cost hardly anything, libraries have ebooks. why
expose yourself to this problem?

google it if you do not believe me.

~~~
eCa
I have heard, through a friend of a librarian, that people actually microwaves
books to kill bugs.

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ianbicking
One thing I like about this concept is that it's based on people creating
public space on their private property. They are well maintained,
aesthetically pleasing, but also quite eclectic. Since these are typically set
up by individuals on residential property, they aren't just token efforts –
they aren't a disingenuous attempt to prove the person is community-minded
(though I'm sure appearing community minded is a motivation, it's just not a
disingenuous motivation ;)

I wish there was more of this. I'd actually like to put a bench in my front
yard, facing the sidewalk – unfortunately people would use it to congregate
and drink. But then, so it goes – there are other people near me who wouldn't
have that problem, because these problems are typically block-by-block. For
some reason _my_ yard appears like a perfectly good drinking spot, I'm not
sure why, but I am very aware of it.

When benches are put in by the city, the person who makes that decision is not
at all aware of these specific issues. They don't live with the result of the
infrastructure they create. So we have another public bench near us that
causes problems. Or often there are no benches available because they are seen
as a nuisance, or the public space is rendered hostile in some fashion to
discourage loiterers, which simultaneously discourages all enjoyment. These
are the crude choices cities make because the people planning aren't
intimately involved with the specific environments they are affecting.

(If I ever do something with the hill in my front yard I think I'd like to
install a slide. I think that would be enjoyed but not abused. And if I'm
wrong I'll have to figure out myself how to fix it)

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untothebreach
A while back, a local non-profit here in Flint, MI held a campaign and got a
handful of these put up. It is amazing that, in a city where anything not
bolted down is fair game for theft, these Little Free Libraries are (afaik)
always stocked, and I have never heard any stories of people finding their LFL
empty one morning. It does restore a little faith in humanity.

~~~
toyg
I expect vandals would have no interest in books as a whole. They wouldn't be
vandals otherwise: there is something about the fragility and meaningfulness
of books that makes one shudder at the thought of making physical violence to
objects.

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Kronopath
It's interesting to see this on HN. I came across one of these when randomly
wandering a residential street in Toronto, and was thoroughly intrigued as I
looked up the website on my phone. I didn't end up taking any of the books,
but it did seem to be pretty well-stocked.

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eightofdiamonds
Someone built on in my neighborhood and it stood for about a year before
someone lit it on fire. It was rebuilt, hopefully it was just a random act of
destruction and it will stick around this time.

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ersii
I saw something similar when I was Berlin, by the Grunewald S-Bahn station.
There is a memorial platform of the deportation of Jews from Berlin and the
area around the city called Track 17 (German: Gleis 17) and nearby the station
entrance there's a converted phone booth (in bright "happy" colors) with books
on the history and surrounding stories.

It seemed quite popular, with a few people sitting on the benches next to it
reading (books presumably from the Book Booth)

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netghost
Here in Seattle, there are tons of these. There are probably 6 or 7 in my
neighborhood alone.

It's a great idea, and a fun project for the community.

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aristus
There's one on my corner. It's also an Ingress portal. :) I stock it with kids
books, mostly. And of course keep it shielded.

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toyg
I got all fired up and now I'm going to set one up. My carpentry skills are
zero, so I'm thinking of just taking an Ikea Nornäs, painting it waterproof
and adding a plexiglass door and a better roof (I have some spare tiles left
from the previous owner that should do the trick).

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pnathan
There are a number of these in Seattle.

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adamb0mb1
Yeah, my neighbor has one... and she's nice enough to keep it in stock with
childrens books for my daughter.

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acheron
Sounds like a great idea until the city zoning board comes to tear it down.
[http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/19/why-we-need-government-
to-...](http://reason.com/blog/2014/06/19/why-we-need-government-to-
prevent-9-year)

~~~
wvenable
"Leawood said it has received two complaints about Spencer Collins' library."

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titusjohnson
These are everywhere in Minneapolis. I've restocked them a few times when a
book purge is done.

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jvoorhis
I've seen these throughout residential neighborhoods in Portland. Most seem to
be stocked with romance novels or childrens lit, but my wife recently found a
biography of Captain James Cook that she was planning to read.

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dimxasnewfrozen
I drive by one of these every day in Vermont. I thought it was a mailbox at
first. I hope these are self sufficient and don't get taken advantage of. It's
a great idea.

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RadioactiveMan
This is great. Had I the materials, I'd have gone to start building one half
way through reading the front page.

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kasthack
I've seen these in St.Petersburg, Russia ~month ago.

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ycombosnator
watch out for bed bugs.

