We have a Little Free Library (https://www.instagram.com/paintedladieslibrary/) that we painted/decorated to look like our house using a laser cutter and a lot of wood glue to mimic the decorative woodwork. Recently I installed a door sensor connected to a Raspberry Pi to collect analytics on how often people open it and how long they browse for. In the past week, it has been opened around 200 times with an average browse time of just over a minute.
I am also "this person", and while it feels awkward to ask, I think it's important to provide at least some social pressure against the adtech megaplatforms. (Similarly, I feel that it is completely acceptable to ask for a .txt, pastebin, or archive link whenever someone posts a medium.com link.)
Ha, yes — I haven't been at Facebook since well before they acquired Instagram, but you're right to note a certain amount of irony in the situation! Of course, I don't mind the comment, and happy to post another way to see what we did with the project!
It shows some of the design elements, too, so maybe folks would be interested in that. I haven't written up anything about the door sensor part, but that was pretty basic, and mostly an excuse to learn about using the Raspberry Pi.
not that its hard but just a reminder that its easier than ever to set up a static html page for this sort of thing on github pages or just stick images in a repos readme, and surprisingly easy to update it automatically from a folder (or webscraped iCloud photo album set to "public") with a tiny script that also automates IG posts if you want to support people both on and off socmedia - speaking of which anyone have opinions on instapy?
We put one in our yard, and it gets a ton of use. During the spring of 2020 when nobody was able to go anywhere at all because of lockdown (walking around was still permitted in our town), we actually had to put a call out for more books because the neighborhood had burned through the entire stock we had in our garage. I really like having it, and I think our neighbors do too.
There are four nearby my place. I've put books in all of them, and they'll sit (along with the others) for months.
The local thrift store used to have a very large book section. I noticed that most of the books sat there for months on end. Eventually, the store just boiled it down to a tiny 10x10 section. I'm sure most of the titles went to the dump.
While I trust the journalists at Wapo and trust that little free library is too litigious, Bezos owns Wapo and probably hates people giving away stuff just for… free???
Just want to chime in that where I live in Portland Oregon, these are common enough in my neighborhood you'll find one every few blocks. It's a small but neat thing. People really do enjoy this, and interestingly to me, the vandal folks don't tend to mess with them much.
I've seen a lot of these pop up in various neighborhoods over the years. It's a cute concept, but most of the what I see in them are things that nobody has any interest in and would be better off just being recycled. Old manuals for MS Word 1997, crappy romance novels, water damaged cook books from the 80s, etc.
It's the same around me, but I think that's due to the survivor effect. Just last week I needed to make space on in my bookcase, so I dropped about a dozen novels in the little libraries around the neighborhood. By the next day, half the books had been taken and a few days later, they were all gone. If their main purpose is to help books find new homes, then they seem to be very effective.
Yeah, but my guess is the people who took your old books will probably not actually read them and then will donate them somewhere else in the future.
We have an aversion to throwing out books out of principle, but sometimes you just have to admit that a book is worthless and perfectly fine to throw out.
Luckily we don't have to admit that when somebody else wants the things that we were throwing out. Let them get a chance to admit it. Pass that chance down the line until the book ends up in the landfill. We all end up in the landfill eventually, there's no hurry.
Romance is generally the best selling genre, so it seems off to claim that they're something that "nobody has any interest in" – are you sure you aren't projecting that on the basis that _you_ don't have any interest in them?
Not sure about you but the one in my neighborhood usually has 1-2 books which are classic/bestseller. I always peek into the shelf to see what books interest me and over the last few months I've seen sci-fi classics from Neal Stephenson to William Gibson etc.
I live in Mount Pleasant, a neighborhood of Washington, D.C. and there are more than a dozen of these in walking distance. The selection is extremely good, and it helps me avoid hoarding books I'm not going to return to in the near future.
Hi neighbor. I've actually noticed the quality improve substantially over the past few years. They've gone from just being dumping grounds for old GMAT prep books and law school textbooks to having fairly current stuff that one might actually want to read.
I once found a little free library on Google maps in SF which was open late. I thought great, a new place to do some coding this evening. Disappointed to find a cupboard in the suburbs.
Is it just me, or are these densest in the places that nobody's probably hurting for access to books in the first place?
That doesn't make them harmful, of course, just.... weirdly pointless, as far as I can tell. Couple that with the "someone cleaned out their garage" selection of books that others have observed, and I guess I just don't see what problem these solve.
This is how it is in my current city. I only see them in wealthy neighborhoods and the selection is always terrible. In poorer neighborhoods they're usually empty or half full of charitable food items.
We try to dontate our books to the poorer neighborhoods. The poor are less able to afford books, but need them as much. I've even taken loads from a stuffed one to an empty one.
I get the impression that some prolific users repeatedly post content that the site isn't very interested in until it finally takes the bait so as to earn magic internet points ('This account is valuable to HN!') as a cover for posting divisive content. There are also groups of accounts who appear to accomplish this by sharing reposting duties.
Reposts are ok after a year or so: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html, as I explained before. Using a bot to submit would not be ok, but I don't think Tomte's doing that. As for "cover for posting divisive content" - if you think someone is abusing HN, please let us know at hn@ycombinator.com (as the site guidelines ask), and please don't make insinuations about it in the threads (as the guidelines also ask). We need to deal with abuse on the basis of evidence, not insinuation, and certainly not imagination, which such perceptions often turn out to be.
There are a ton of these all over my neighborhood in Seattle and even though I don't use them, I love that they are there. It adds a bit of warmth to the area and I love just peeking in to see what each little library has available.
Our free little library has been fascinating: we get far more books that we give out. To the point that, like a rug merchant, we get to pick really great books out, stock the library box with top titles, destroy the bad ones (I had no idea Fox News celebrities generated so many books), and take the rest to Goodwill.
I'm a big fan and user of my local Big Free Library™. I see these Little Free Libraries all over the place in affluent neighbourhoods and they baffle me. If you want to promote literacy your effort is better spent helping the existing library system, which is better in pretty much every way.
The fact that it has "library" in the name doesn't mean it's meant to be a replacement for a public library. It's just a book swap with weather protection for the books. It doesn't detract from or compete with public libraries. People just like swapping books.
The big library is over 1 hour and a transfer by bus. The local little free library is walking distance. Guess which my kids can actually get to and use regularly.
In the Bahamas many of the island marinas will have a cardboard box tucked away somewhere full of books referred to as the "Cruiser's Library". People sailing from island to island use them in the same way as these Little Free Libraries and have been for decades.
Once I was exploring an uninhabited island somewhere in the Abacos island chain. The only thing on this island was the ruins of an old resort that has been destroyed by a hurricane 10 years earlier. In the middle of the largest ruined building where the remains of the roof still kept off most of the damp I found a table with a pile of these books, the local Cruiser's Library.
We bought one a few weeks ago and have been assembling and painting on weekends. Fun little project and looking forward to installing it. There are a few in the greater neighborhood already and they get a lot of use.
I saw these outside in 2 suburban towns and a lot in Boston. I had no idea there was a website and map and there's about 20 of them in the town where I am right now.
I'm surprised to see reports that this concept works for some people. We have a bunch around the Bay Area, and they are inevitably full of garbage books that their owners weren't comfortable trashing. They're not really books they expect you to read, just books they want out of the house. You put semi-possibly-usable trash on the curb, you put trash books into the Little Free Library.
then borrow those books and throw them out :) Fix the system by creating space for better books. (Though be careful this isn't just you not enjoying certain books others love -- if that's the case, then you might tread into "that asshole" territory :) )
The box is usually stuffed pretty full of unwanted books. And I really don't want the responsibility of policing what books end up in those things. If they're full of trash, they're full of trash.
Heh, or even just borrow them to confirm how bad they are as you stuff your own in. What you do with them after (once you take them home and confirm their shittiness) if up to you, karma-free :)
The little Hungarian town I live in Diósd, has one. It's on a tiny street (most are in the town I guess) and a bit out of the way, I'd love to know how frequently it's used. I've never seen one in the US but it strikes me as a great idea.
I think more than just the purpose it fills on its own, it's part of a larger set of community resources that make this a nicer place to live. There are places to get and deposit bags for picking up dog poop. There are cute signs that go with them. There are signs made by local school kids about slowing down around crosswalks, and flags for them to carry as they cross the street - so they are more visible. (There aren't too many of those as most streets in town are really small as I've said.)
We're a near suburb of Budapest and probably on the upper end of the socio-economic scale but I still think it brings up some great ideas of how to build a great community.
There are a bunch of these in my neighborhood. They're a great excuse to go out for a walk. During Covid times one of them was converted to provide "free supplies" of hand sanitizer and disposable masks.
The map is neat but I also enjoy stumbling across them while exploring the area.
We got a bunch of those are the neighborhood. They are marked as "closed due to COVID", but books and mags are still exchanged as theyvare not locked. They are a great thing to have around.
I used to make it a policy to only read books I found in little free libraries, regardless of reviews...
I kinda got burned out on it, after I noticed the same books nobody wanted to touch, that someone cleaned out of their garage. Bad romance novels, etc. I feel like it needs some TLC and even a bit of evangelism to work well. I wish someone would come through and clean out / recycle books that have been in the same library for a long time...
I almost want to ONLY put interesting books in myself... and recycle everything else.
Anecdotally, I've heard talk that some librarians are critical of the word "library" in these projects. They point out that librarians are trained specialists with expertise in several areas.
I've no idea how widespread this feeling is, having only heard of it casual conversation, but I thought it was an interesting counterpoint.
The site doesn't appear to be getting much use, there is one little free library in my neighbourhood and as others have mentioned here in their neighbourhoods as well, but the sites search engine isn't picking these up.
These are basically a community book exchange for rich people (when they have any selection at all), agreed. But there's a good reason they only exist in places where the book cost is immaterial -- if you put these in many poor neighborhoods people would just take all the books and sell them.
This has been my observation as well: I see these often in slightly more affluent neighborhoods, not at all in less well-off neighborhoods. It doesn't help that LFL's are much harder to get going (approval from management) in apartment complexes. For this reason I take all my books to local laundry mats: most have a book repository area with a sign to encourage swaps. Since laundry mats are often used by apartment dwellers without built-in laundry facilities, it at least covers some of that factor.
Regardless though, even if LFL tends towards more well-off neighborhoods, that doesn't take away from the merit of the concept. It just means that book access for other areas of the socioeconomic ladder need different solutions.
You realise anyone with a street facing yard can set one up right? Including any resident of any neighbourhood, regardless of wealth or ethnicity. You literally just need a box and some books. Both of which are widely available for free or a bit of dumpster diving. Why the victim mentality?
I don't want to be a grinch - I like the idea of sharing books and building community - but what are the odds that I'll find a/the book I want to read next? Maybe I'm just more choosy than most, but I'll read very few books in my lifetime and so that list is very exclusive. I am not looking for random books.
Edits:
Food? Kitchen supplies? Tools?!! How about cabinets that share anything: Whatever is functional and safe, that you don't need or are willing to share, put in your cabinet. A clear door will make the contents discoverable. Maybe an optional website where you can list contents online, making them searchable.
Or ... a website where you simply list what you are willing to share, a sort of Craigslist for sharing (and giveaways).[0] Neighbors search, find your thing, contact you, and stop by to pick it up. It would scale up well and be very efficient.
[0] Sorry, maybe I should say 'an Uber or Airbnb for your stuff'.
