This is perhaps going to be the shortest blog I've ever written. But I wanted to share this with you.Recently I visited friends who live in a small close-knit village. Last year one of my friends retired and has joined a number of local clubs. One of these clubs is the book club. They meet once a month, choose a book, everyone reads it and over tea and cake they discuss it.
Now last year BT decided the public phone, situated in the middle of the village was no longer viable so removed it. However they left the box, empty and uncared for. So the local book club came up with a wonderful idea. They have filled it with books looking for new homes. They have invited the entire village to take part and enjoy using the new local 'library.'
Basically if you take a book you replace with a book you enjoyed reading and want to share. So far the system is working well and as you can see this small library is quite well stocked.
Well stocked for its size!
I just love this idea. I'm hoping people think so to and perhaps create their own small libraries and soon they'll be popping up all over the place.
12 comments:
It is a lovely idea. Libraries can exist in the most unlikely places. There is one in a canoe in Africa!
I too think such places make atttractive and interesting "homes" for local book sharing - and all praise to the people who run them. It's a nice post.
BUT I also don't think that such newsworthy venues can offer the range of books or book-ordering facilities or even the study space ("Come out, Mary-Jane! Your three minutes is up!Do not press Button B.") that anyone doing serious study or research needs.
It's all too easy to quote such sites as the answer to the library cuts. Imo they are a pretty add-on to a badly-hacked core.
I'm with Panny. This is sweet and lovely, and a great idea. But 'as libraries close' if this is all we're left with, it is pitiful.
or even PENNY. Sorry!
I'm all for libraries and have spent many hours in them and I feel even losing one is a crime. But if using an old phone box in this way can convert one person into reading books who would never dream of walking into a library then it's served it's purpose well.
Lynne, like you, I'm all for converting people into readers but recently I seem to have seen too many "media puffs" about such small photogenic libraries put out by councils and such bodies as cute smokescreens for the cuts that that are going on. Our local paper had an article about a village pub that now acts as a library, replacing the mobile library that used to come to the village. Great "story" - and a good way of encouraging people into the pub too. But, in my view, without an active and well-staffed library service, there's a point when volunteer-led library initiatives will fade. Volunteers can be fantastic, but they can also be a picky lot about what and when they do things because the work is not as central to their lives. This is without touching on the "range of book stock" issues.
It is a pretty library!
Over time I think the stock would go down some as some wouldn't put books back, but a lot of readers are good people. And if some occasionally restocked with used books, it could be a real winner.
Lynne, I love this! What a cute - and civilised - idea!
Peculiarly British or oddly human? Vandalised phone box rescues vandalised library. The spirits of Margaret Rutherford and Alec Guinness deposit a book.
Great story.
I agree that this is a sweet idea. But I also agree with those who have said that it's no replacement for the real thing - not least because of this sort of thing.
Yes we need libraries, but I see no problem with having this as well - I think it's a great idea.
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