I built one of these with my kids (5 and 7 at the time), and painted it to look just like our house. I expected it to stand unnoticed in the corner of our driveway as people buzzed past in their SUVs.<p>That's not at all what happened. People come by -- kids on bicycles, parents with strollers, even elderly folks on a walk. They take and leave books. Sometimes they're people we know, and sometimes they're people we don't. It's a wonderful thing. RIP, Todd.
There are eight little free libraries within five blocks of our house in Seattle. My 3yo <i>loves</i> them. A fun activity is to walk around the neighborhood, check each library in turn, and discover new books. It's hard to understate how impactful this simple idea has been on my daughter's life and, I hope, on the lives of many others like her. RIP, Todd Bol.
This is such a neat idea. I can see building a Little, Free Library being an interesting project. Add a solar embedded stack [1] to it and you could add some fun features such as: shelf time tracking (maybe to replace never read books), number of checkouts/returns, etc. I'm not sure if adding connectivity would be keeping with the spirit of the project, but it opens up even more interesting social possibilities.<p>In general, I love the idea of projects/technology that encourage interaction in the physical world. (See the first week or so of Pokémon Go).<p>[1]: <a href="https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-lowtech-website.html" rel="nofollow">https://solar.lowtechmagazine.com/2018/09/how-to-build-a-low...</a> is an example of a website run on such a stack
There are dozens of these in my neighborhood in Washington DC and they're huge hits. I see people of all backgrounds and languages perusing, sorting, maybe giving the books a quick shuffle. They're generally well-treated and well-respected. There was one that got bashed up a few weeks ago, but it reappeared a few days later, patched up. In general they are well-loved parts of the community, and a reason to have just a little remaining faith in the goodness of humanity. RIP Todd, you did a wonderful thing. (You also gave me a great way to unload my own library, book by book by book over the past few years).
Community-centered spaces like Free Little Libraries have a tremendous impact. They become hubs for knowledge and alliances between neighbors. They foster more resilient communities. Thanks, Todd.<p><a href="https://littlefreelibrary.org/build/" rel="nofollow">https://littlefreelibrary.org/build/</a>
These are all over Germany, many predating the Little Free Library.<p>Some of them from the 90s: <a href="https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_%C3%B6ffentlicher_B%C3%BCcherschr%C3%A4nke_in_Deutschland" rel="nofollow">https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liste_%C3%B6ffentlicher_B%C3%B...</a><p>I get the feeling they were around for a lot longer than that, but only the recent ones got listed online.
There's a recent interview with Bol here:<p><a href="http://www.startribune.com/after-cancer-diagnosis-little-free-library-founder-todd-bol-feels-like-most-successful-person-i-know/497826391/" rel="nofollow">http://www.startribune.com/after-cancer-diagnosis-little-fre...</a>
There are two within a short walk of my place. They're pretty cool! On summer evenings there are frequently parents with kids reading on the bench or picking up a book.
This summer I led an ESL class along a street where there was one, and stopped to point it out. A grandmother picked out a book for her granddaughter; I forget whether anyone else picked something out.
My doctor's office has one. My kids love going there and seeing what might be there and adding books.<p>The idea that someone else put their book there and that they can really gets them excited.
I've seen these things around Boulder and had no idea it was such a widespread phenomena. The greatest people do things completely unprompted like this. RIP.
We have a few in the city where I live (Belgium).
I think it's a quite great idea - the ones I know are located near schools as well which might help children pick up an interesting book.
While I believe the LFL idea originated from an honorable place, we need to do more to support actual libraries and (much more importantly) the staff there who play an important role in public education and assisting patrons in evaluating information:<p><a href="https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/the-case-against-little-free-libraries/523533/" rel="nofollow">https://www.citylab.com/life/2017/05/the-case-against-little...</a><p>>“As a librarian, my gut reaction to that was, ‘You know what else is a free library? A regular library.’”