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Little Free Library

littlefreelibrary.org

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I hired a handy man to build one of these in front of my house a year ago and it has been a great project. In fact, I use it as a motivation to go out on bike rides in the city. What I do is take a chunk of books from my place, go to the next mini-library swap them for a chunk of those books, go to the next mini library, rinse and repeat. I've become familiar with about a dozen of these within a few miles. I know which ones have books that move quickly, which ones are slow, which ones are sources (oversupply), which ones are sinks (high demand for books there). Which ones are good to bring kids books to, etc. I've also found local bookstores where I can get extra free books. I often strike up interesting conversations with people. For example, one time I met a guy who ended up giving me half of his entire book collection because he was moving to the country and couldn't keep everything. It took a while for me to get that collection to the neighboring libraries, there were so many!

Pointers: If you're going to build one of these, don't make them too deep! A foot deep is actually sufficient, I think. Not more than 14 inches. Multiple levels are great. My favorite mini library has 4 levels: a pretty tall bottom level -- some books are tall! -- and then gradually shorter as you get to the top one which you can fit paperbacks into. Also, quantity: It's nice to have a little free space so people feel they can leave books. You can put one or more books facing forward so the full front cover is viewable. This also makes the library more attractive. Too many books is not good. Then it's hard move them around to find things. Also, a jumble is no good, I like to keep it pretty well arranged. If there are extra books, I just bring them inside for my next bike trip.

Have fun!

Thank you for being such a good steward of a lovely community resource! The LFL near my house occasionally suffers from the ailments you mentioned — jumble, books that have stagnated there for months — but nonetheless it is a delightful stop every day when we walk the dog. I love seeing what's new in, snagging interesting-looking reads, and I also love contributing from my personal library. I do try to rearrange the inventory when it's looking a mess, but the idea of swapping out chunks with other nearby LFLs hadn't occurred to me.

Using the "near me" mapping feature I noticed that my area has a massive problem with pirate LFLs! It shows three in my small city, when I'd guess there are at least 4-5x that number. Will not report for now. Would like to see some LFMs for us museum-goers.

I have found some very interesting niche books in these things. Books which, had they been donated to a public library, the Friends of the Library would have sold off immediately, I'd guess. (They do a good job of keeping the library materials fresh)

Even books like "The Esoteric Compilation of Ryan McPhee" which is fictional for example purposes here, but you pick it up and find out about the McPheebians from the back cover, and then look them up online and discover that they offer a free online diploma in World Peace, and you give them a call and the former chapter leader ends up teaching you chainsaw carving next week.

Sure, you narrowly escaped joining a definitely-not-a-cult for a trial period because you lucked out and met a disaffected follower, but also hey check out this gigantic wooden yard ornament!

(And this title was tucked in next to all of the more normal books of course. One must work for it)

What is a pirate LFL?

presumably a joke-y name for one that's not listed on the "official" website.

To name but one of the questions that post raises.

To use the name “Little Free Library” you pay a fee. There are benefits to paying the fee and it helps the non-profit. Not sure if the name is trademarked or not or what happens if you call your free book exchange “Little Free Library” without paying the fee.

I’d like all these to be legit/legal - it’d be sweet if we could sponsor others’ LFL, in essence, be able to lookup a pirate location, then license it for those who cannot. I had no idea our lfl needed to be legitimized, but I could see how it makes sense to offer some sort of understanding around where these things are, creating guidelines, ethics around them etc.

We are contemplating adding a solar panel to our lfl to allow passerby’s to charge up their phone for a bit, but that is proving difficult to plan for loitering, safety, etc. Denver has had a rash of folks taking all the books, wrecking the units this year, but it’s calmed down a bit now that it’s winter. I think the more we get used to seeing and lfl in the wild, the more it becomes something folks expect - maybe switching the colors, adding a something seasonal, might be a way to make them always feel new and exciting. Gloves, masks, snacks, batteries. Stuff that doesn’t matter so much to the operator of lfl, can be life-changing for a passerby. I always feel a dilemma there though, I’m littering the library with lesser materials and potentially taking away from the overall goals to just have books out there.

I’m not sure if you are joking or not but in case you aren’t. The lfl organization doesn’t legitimize them. It sells the kits, gives you a plaque & puts them in an online db.

The people putting them up are responsible for following all the regulations where they place them.

As someone who runs one I’ve never engaged with the official lfl site at all. We do have a problem every once in awhile with people taking all the books but it’s not a major issue. Our biggest concern is people putting what is effectively trash at our library. Broken toys, clothes with major holes, single shoes, magazines with water damage etc.

One of the reasons libraries work so well is that people understand the leave one/take one concept so well with books and people know to take care of them. For consumable items and other durable goods (like clothes) it’s less culturally obvious what to do.

So my advice, start your own little food pantry (or whatever) or barring that, knock on the door of the lfl provider and ask what they want provided? We have a list of local places that take such donations including live fridges and clothing exchange boxes we send people to who want to place items other than books.

I would like to enjoy simple things without turning them into a complex bureaucracy. The idea of a free book swap does not need a ton of legal infrastructure.

Seems like 'unlicensed LFL' would be better than 'pirate'. The latter implying something a bit more sinister. Unlicensed ones still serve the same purpose and are run by volunteers.

I suspect the OP was joking…

No I wasn’t joking, what else would you call my particular lfl? I built my own, stole the name and host it local so that’s kind of where I was going with legitimizing lfls that aren’t in the proper online db. I just felt guilty reading that this morning like whelp, I kind of jacked their idea and gave no accreditation, and I called it a “Little Free Library” to boot. I’m intrigued by lfp now and it seems like keeping those two separated or well defined keeps the mission more clear and focused. Always loving this place, HN is the last corner we can even talk about these things, and I’m blown away so many people in our city are really trying to what we can to improve each other. Cheers!

what else would you call my particular lfl?

A library call?

> what else would you call my particular lfl

'unregistered lfl' it has the spirit and purpose of an lfl, but just isn't registered.

Nothing against the LFL organization, we set up an LFL for our neighborhood and did register it. They even sent us a bumper sticker. But there are also lots of unregistered ones around town as well, free exchange of books is the point so it all good.

> what happens if you call your free book exchange “Little Free Library” without paying the fee

The LFL police come and take it down?

Here's what happens: nothing. You don't get registered in their database, and no one cares. People in the neighborhood, or those who walk by give & take books, exactly as you intended.

It's someone exercising their right to put up a box on their own property. I see them all the time and it never occurred to me that this was "organized" by grifters in any way (and no, I don't have one).

Yes, I said "grifters." No one needs sponsorship for their LFL. No one needs to be "registered." If you want to contribute to society's literacy, there are lots of organizations that do that.

And by the way, public libraries are already free, and they're pretty popular, too.

Somebody who puts up a box of books near their house and doesn't give credit to the person who invented the idea: https://www.washingtonpost.com/entertainment/books/that-litt...

I have been seeing these around town, not sure how many are actual LFL's or just copying the idea.

But I have noticed, like you, questionable books being placed in them by what I presume are the local wingnuts who regularly make the local news for protesting drag shows in the local bars.

I would hazard a guess any LGBT+ friendly books would similarly disappear.

All the other times this was posted: https://news.ycombinator.com/from?site=littlefreelibrary.org

We call these "Guilt Alleviation Stations" where you go to get rid of your books. We have always believed that books must be treated with respect, yet nowadays, there is less and less reason to keep massive numbers of books. Yet there is no market value to most books and indeed, few opportunities to give them to charity. So, exactly what you need is a place you can come to drop off your books and then run away before anyone stops you :-)

While this is true for regular novels (and the instances near me never seem to have anything interesting), they're really handy for kids' books. You can freely give and take books as the kids get older, without the potential guilt of tearing/shredding/spilling-something-on a book from the public library.

It's a great way for the children themselves to get into the spirit of sharing and giving.

As for the other books: a good bookcase owner curates and tosses out titles that won't ever get taken or borrowed. If you don't, the bookcase will stagnate because it's full, but nobody is ever taking the books in it out.

I think this is probably location dependent. Our lfl has as many takers as givers so we don’t have to deal with unloading books ever.

We have had some estate sized drop offs (10x boxes) but those we just moved to a few libraries we know don’t get as many donations.

No one I know has any problem unloading books so drop off guilt free!

I've help maintain a few nearby and we rotate out books to keep them both fresh and relevant

Find lfl in a poor neighborhood to drop your unwanted books at people with nothing can't give back, but they need the help.

There are a lot of little free libraries in my area. A few years ago I took all of my Goosebumps and Animorphs books that were still at my parents house and drove around dropping them off. I hope some kids got as much enjoyment out of them as I did.

Similar (has been around for maybe 20 years): https://www.bookcrossing.com/ which influenced public book cases in Germany according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Public_bookcase

The wikipedia article also links to a OSM map

I have a few of these in my city and I can happily say they’re widely used. Almost every time I have walked by one, someone is either withdrawing or depositing a book. Or both! It’s a really cool idea and I hope we can see more of them.

It’s not often a lot of things like this actually go used.

In Telluride, Colorado they have a giant “free box” it eats up the whole side of a large commercial building on the main road - I can’t even begin to describe what a watering hole that freebox is. So fun to see your jacket on someone else who needs it more than you did, but alas, that type of thing is tougher in the city with the dumping, trash. It gets used habitually everyday by most of the town, and it’s wonderful.

I remember this site called http://bookmooch.com (it still exists!) where I used to regularly swap books with others. The site operates on the same concept: you list your books, and then mail them out when someone requests them of you, and of course, you are also free to request books from other members of the site.

I used to be an avid user (and braved many a visit to the Post Office to mail out books), but sadly stopped using it after I graduated. I wonder if it still thrives.

I'm lucky to have many LFLs in my area. Many unexpectedly good discoveries have occurred because of them, and I hope I have contributed to that myself also.

LFL, aka the most reliable way to get a pokemon go stop near your house.

The thing I enjoy the most about these little free libraries is that they’re small, simple things that rid a neighborhood of the feeling of separation and loneliness. Anyone can set them up and anyone can use them. They’re community building and I love that.

And yet, I know that I personally would never use one. I use an e-reader and most of the books I’ve seen in them don’t intrigue me.

So does anyone know of any similar projects that can be used for community building? Something I find similar is the typewriter mailbox I learned of from a Strong Towns blog post: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/12/10/the-typewrite...

Unfortunately welding a typewriter to a mailbox isn’t as simple as buying or building a wooden box on a post.

My girlfriend has had a little free library in her front yard for years. It gets a lot of use, especially in the spring. Lots of families and college students in her neighborhood. I'm thinking about setting up a NAS for ebooks. Or maybe just buy some old ebooks from thrift stores and load them up.

We go on long walks now and then each carrying two or three books, stopping at a handful of LFLs. We rarely return with less than five other books.

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