Library Stuff

“Left without a library, the Parkside neighborhood has taken matters into its own hands. In a few months, 10 wooden stands will be placed in front of homes and businesses. The “little libraries” will be filled with books that passers-by can take and return as they please. No library cards, registration or fees required. “We’re trying to create that third space, not home, not work, where neighbors congregate and interact,” said Ben Johnson, executive director of the Parkside Community Association.”

via The Buffalo News

“When the Whitefish Bay Village Board decided not to allow Little Free Libraries on front lawns, a number of concerns were raised about vandalism, size regulations and a potential for the devices to turn into vessels for propaganda. Although the majority of Patch readers voted that the Whitefish Bay board should’ve allowed Little Free Libraries, it appears at least one of the Whitefish Bay board’s concerns has come true in South Milwaukee, where a Little Free Library has been filled with pamphlets spreading religious-based fear.”

via Whitefish Bay, WI Patch

“Last Sunday, I wrote about the Little Free Library idea. One week later, that oh-so-cute and clever concept — a little public bookshelf that can be placed on street corners or in yards — has caught on in a big way. “I’ve been on the phone ever since,” said Bob Cheshier, president of a local nonprofit, Third World Books, who is heading what’s become an impromptu movement to put more of them near Cleveland schools.

During a week when Hurricane Sandy was whipping up on us with rain and wind, Cheshier heard from a deluge of people eager to see more of the mini-libraries placed where Cleveland kids can use them.”

via Margaret BernsteiN

“…[A]s little libraries have grown in popularity, they’ve come to the attention of city bureaucrats. And as “Metamorphosis” author Franz Kafka might suggest, bureaucracy can suffocate just the kind of human inspiration that results in little libraries. The problem is that most of Madison’s LLs are technically illegal. With dozens already installed and serving readers, the city has only recently realized that they don’t really fit under any of its existing codes.”

via Wisconsin State Journal

“Imagine a library with no late fines, quiet rules or closing hours. You’ll find one about the size of a large birdhouse atop a pole in Margaret Gulick’s backyard. Painted green with miniature gnomes, the weatherproof, shingled wooden structure stands about 6 feet tall on the edge of her lawn, at the intersection of Sterling Avenue and Navajo Trail. Known as a Little Free Library, the free book exchange is part of a worldwide grassroots movement to promote literacy.”

via The Journal News

“Jonathan Beggs wanted an easy way for his neighbors to share books. Using odds and ends of fiberboard and Douglas fir, the retired building contractor fashioned a hutch the size of a dollhouse. He gave it a pitched cedar-shingle roof capped with copper. The door, trimmed in bright red, opens to three shelves filled with books by Joyce Carol Oates, Tony Hillerman, James Michener and others. Below hangs a sign: “Take a book or bring a book or both.” In the half a year that Beggs’ Little Free Library has perched on a post in front of his Sherman Oaks home, it has evolved into much more than a book exchange. It has turned strangers into friends and a sometimes impersonal neighborhood into a community. It has become a mini-town square, where people gather to discuss Sherlock Holmes, sustainability and genealogy.”

via LA Times.

Village Voice – “About a year ago Julia Marchesi, a 32-year-old documentary film producer, saw a picture in the New York Times of sculpture in Berlin made up of a carved out tree trunk filled with bookshelves. “I just thought it was a really cool idea,” she said. “A little library.” That image helped to serve as the inspiration for a project Marchesi is now raising money for on Kickstarter. Noticing a Brooklyn trend of leaving books on stoops, Marchesi, who lives in Cobble Hill, enlisted the help of Brooklyn-based public artist Leon Reid IV to design an “honor system lending library” in Cobble Hill Park. Called “The Hundred Story House,” the library, if built, will look like a down-sized brownstone.”