Against Little Free Libraries (2017)

https://www.citylab.com/navigator/2017/05/the-case-against-little-free-libraries/523533/

by Tomte • 7 years ago

35 59 7 years ago

hiei• 7 years ago

Look I don't use the actual library as much as I want to (Seattle). When I was job hunting it was one of the last places I went to to be productive. The open hours are abysmal,(10AM-6PM) was a common one. That being said I have found use in these tiny libraries just knowing I might pick up something interesting - and I try to return or find another spot to donate a book of my own. It's not like they're stealing funding from the city? Virtue signaling? Wealthy neighborhoods? Some people just like books and want to give back.

Tomte6• 7 years ago

I agree. There's no reason why a LFL would affect the public library negatively.

Nobody will cut funding for public libraries, because "we have a LFL now".

hprotagonist3• 7 years ago

Want to bet? Library budgets are on the front lines, and have been for decades.

kaycebasques2• 7 years ago

In September 2014, the mayor of tiny Vinton, Texas, announced plans to install five Little Free Library book-stops across town—while implementing a $50 fee for access to the El Paso Public Library system to balance state-imposed budget cuts.

From the article. I’m with you, I don’t think it’s likely, but the article did so their research and show that there’s precedent for exactly what you’re describing.

jpm_sd• 7 years ago

I live in a relatively wealthy neighborhood (Alameda, CA) next to a relatively poor neighborhood (Oakland). Lots of LFLs around. Recently we've had an issue with people raiding the LFLs - taking all the books at once. When confronted, one of these raiders admitted that she was taking all the free books in order to sell them to the nearest used bookstore for a quick bit of cash.

ocschwar• 7 years ago

I'm okay with it, personally. The LFLs in my area tend to fill up and stay full with books that nobody picks up, and which tell a lot more about the neighbors than the neighbors intend to tell about themselves.

toast0• 7 years ago

My wife put up a LFL in front of our house and this would have been great. We put a sign up asking for books when we started, and we got so many --- it really wasn't a big deal if people took the books.

wool_gather2• 7 years ago

Apparently some LFL owners mark the books in their box (with a stamp) in an attempt to prevent this. I've seen signs on a few to that effect. No idea whether it works.

Causality1• 7 years ago

"Little Free Libraries predominantly appear in medium- to high-income neighborhoods" Because they don't want them vandalized or raided.

"registration fee of $40 to use the Little Free Library name." OK, legit criticism. The idea you can trademark a phrase as generic and descriptive as "Little Free library" is bullshit.

LeonB4• 7 years ago

It probably also puts you on their map.

amelius• 7 years ago

Shouldn't this kind of data just be available in a generic service like Google search/maps instead?

beat6• 7 years ago

You don't need a map to find the darn things. Just leave the house every once in a while, walk around the neighborhood.

JohnFen4• 7 years ago

The ones in my town tend to have a map attached to them showing you where the next closest ones are.

asark• 7 years ago

Yeah I imagine the key combo for getting a lot of LFLs in a neighborhood is low crime plus shit walkability. I mean if the nearest library's an easy walk away—or maybe even a half-decent used book store—the appeal's gotta drop. If, on the other hand, there's nothing to look at or do on a neighborhood walk but admire your neighbors' lawn-keeping skills, the appeal (and utility) of a few LFLs scattered around is way higher.

ianbicking2• 7 years ago

Looking at the map of my own neighborhood, I'd be surprised if half of the Little Free Libraries are registered.

If I didn't have a lot of money, but had some scrap wood to make a little something for my neighbors to use, I sure as heck wouldn't spend $40 to register it!

jasaloo• 7 years ago

Bingo:

"'We submit that these data reinforce the notion that [Little Free Libraries] are examples of performative community enhancement, driven more so by the desire to showcase one’s passion for books and education than a genuine desire to help the community in a meaningful way.

[ . . . ]

[Little Free Libraries] are a highly visible form of self-gratification cleverly disguised as book aid, and the effects of this visibility can be better understood through a consideration of their role in a landscape . . .'"

jacobmoe• 7 years ago

So what? These sorts of criticisms are irritating. "Such and such is just virtue signalling and therefore bad" makes no sense. Everyone virtue signals all the time. It's just one of those things that human beings do. Accusing others of "just" virtue signalling is itself a signal of ones own virtue (in having deeper, more meaningful motivations).

LeonB4• 7 years ago

“Virtue signalling” is generally an unfalsifiable claim. As such it adds little to any discussion.

wool_gather2• 7 years ago

[a] librarian [... said] “As a librarian, my gut reaction to that was, ‘You know what else is a free library? A regular library.’”

With all respect to librarians, this is a bit silly. There are public libraries that also call themselves "Free". It's a bit of an outdated distinction, sure, but they've had their names for decades. (And there still exist libraries that are not lending libraries or not open to the general public; mostly attached to universities at this point, but not "free".)

JohnFen4• 7 years ago

I think they have their place, though, depending on the circumstances. In my town, you don't see these in the higher-income neighborhoods at all, you see them in the lower-income neighborhoods where there are no public library branches.

They tend to be filled with light recreational reading and children's books.

The main problem I've seen with them is that they usually aren't weatherproofed enough, causing books to get water damaged, and they provide an irresistible temptation for vandals.

beat6• 7 years ago

Virtue signaling goes both ways. Yes, there's plenty of middle class progressive virtue signaling in having a little free library, but there's also plenty in bashing them as a threat to the public library system. Progressiver-than-thou is a seriously annoying thing.

My own gripe against them isn't the virtue signaling, but rather the KonMari problem. People who read tend to treat books as sacred. Throwing books out is a sin, even if the books are, frankly, junk. I live in one of those neighborhoods they describe, with a little free library or two on every block, and they are often stuffed with garbage books that someone couldn't bear to throw out - old Danielle Steele and Steven King novels, obsolete computer books, etc. It's okay to throw books out, it really is. The magic isn't in the book, it's in the reading.

That said, there are other ways to do Good Work with books besides little free libraries and the public library system. My spouse works with a nonprofit that distributes books for underprivileged children. Every time she buys something on Amazon, she also buys a children's book - exclusively books that feature non-white characters. Her goal isn't just to get books in the hands of poor children, but to get minority kids images that look like themselves, and get the white kids images that look like someone else.

Tomte6• 7 years ago

I've finally come around to think that it's okay to throw books into paper collection. It feels wrong, viscerally. You do it hoping nobody is watching you. But that feeling is stupid. It's ecologically okay to recycle paper, and the books you're throwing away aren't one-of-a-kind. You're not depriving anyone of the book, they can lend it from a library or buy it themselves.

beat6• 7 years ago

Right. Especially mass-market paperback fiction and the like. If the book is rare, or has deep sentimental value, keep it or pass it on to someone who will enjoy it. But "because I may read it (or read it again) someday" is not a good reason to keep them. And not every book needs to be donated or resold. If you don't want it, chances are very few others want it either.

fedorareis• 7 years ago

Personally my solution to this is either giving the books to a thrift store or donating it to the library. Then it at least has a chance of finding a new owner, but if not they can decide to recycle it.

Gibbon1• 7 years ago

Seems to me you could take the trash Danielle Steele novels home and throw them out.

craigzucchini• 7 years ago

"Listen, I hate virtue signalling as much as the next guy, but have I told you about how I'm using book giving as a vehicle to dismantle racism by proxy of my spouse?"

I don't think you could have made this point any better.

beat6• 7 years ago

Truth.

That said, I'm not calling for the abolition of either public libraries or little free libraries. I'm just saying we need to be clear about our goals when we do things (especially social justice things). If the goal is "put more books in the hands of poor kids" as an act of personal charity, then there are better ways to do it. Hence the example of my spouse.

There's a lot of intellectual dishonesty in the virtue-signaling claims of those in the article. It's not the virtue signaling itself that's the problem, it's being dishonest about the motivations of others for selfish aims.

Why do people put up LFLs? To share something they love. To decorate their yards. As a statement of culture for themselves and their neighborhood. Dismissing it as "virtue signaling" is deliberately derogatory. And this sort of argument is rife in the social justice movement in general. As someone who wears the "social justice warrior" label proudly, I'm not fond of the warriors who prefer circular firing squads.

kilo_bravo_3• 7 years ago

Virtue signaling is a made up nonsense phrase.

Originally an obscure descriptor confined to anthropology, it entered the mainstream via its use by self-righteous political and social commentators as a way of denigrating the thoughts, words, and/or actions of anyone whose opinions ran counter to their own.

By some of its many, constantly shifting, definitions using the phrase is an example of the phrase itself.

People who use it should be treated with the same level of incredulity that someone who uses the phrase "genetic terminator" when discussing vaccines deserves.

profreez• 7 years ago

I agree with your point and I think that what your wife does is impressive and a thousand times better than a little free library. However, I don't think that there is anything wrong with placing books that you no longer want in public place and exchange them with another book. It's not the idea of little free libraries that's problematic, but the execution. I was living in a small French town from 2013 until 2015 and there was something similar to a little free library on one of the main downtown plazas. Old and young people from all demographic and socio-economic backgrounds seemed to be participating, taking and leaving books. I really loved it and I think it's a pity that over here, the little free libraries are only to be found in privileged neighborhoods.

Spooky23• 7 years ago

I get the perspective, but the public library folks pushing this position are really cheapening what libraries are.

Books are a commodity with low or no value very very quickly. 90% of books as a commodity are worth less than a bottle of soda within months of publication. A LFL is really a way to connect with neighbors and get rid of surplus books taking up space in a way that is potentially better than dumping them in a bin.

A public library is in my mind a nearly magical place that's about learning and information. I'm lucky to live in a place with a vibrant library system. Our local branch is full of kid and adults doing homework, reading, playing, etc. Books are a big part of the expression of that, not the mission.

apocalypstyx• 7 years ago

Over the years, I've developed a process:

1) [99% of commodity books are not sacred] -> if it's damaged, through it out / break it down for recycling.

2) if it's of general interest, donate it to the friends of the library bookstore and let them sell it for 25 - 50 cents.

3) if it's too esoteric for [2], pass it along to a used and scholarly bookstore if there is one nearby.

I am not going to spend my time maintaining a piece of miniature architecture to do something that can be done so much better and easier already. (And I'm especially not paying a registration fee to do so.)

lootsauce• 7 years ago

The quality of content, other than popular fiction which I care not to read, is horrendous at every community library I have browsed the stacks of. What the librarians decide we should like just seems not a good enough solution. Perhaps a more distributed model where people can bring their own books to share, silently hoping someone else will enjoy them, is far more interesting than that of government employees (regardless of their great intentions) deciding for us. Probably unrealistic but my $0.02

dtornabene3• 7 years ago

Something I'm not seeing represented in the comments: Libraries are already under attack. The library in my hometown was the subject of national reporting for the attempt by theocrats to attempt to remove gay parenting books from the library. It was vigorously protested by members of the community, the state ACLU actually sent someone to speak at our county commissioners court meeting. Its still ongoing and the fight has shifted terrain, but my point is that things like the LFL are used, again and again, as ways to undermine state institutions. When individuals and groups with a motive to attack and undermine a specific institution can point to an alternative that allows them to say they aren't actually, say, anti-intellectual, they will do that. On top of that, its worth pointing out that libraries represent the spectrum of human achievement and failure on their shelves. There's a beautiful quote on the wall in the downtown branch (Harold Washington) that goes something to the effect of "libraries are a record of both human genius and stupidity". Librarians are there to make sure that books that are records of our past, that may not have wide cultural currency, are not only preserved and defended, but accessible to the public for free. Exchanging that for an upper middle class located box of, truth be told, overwhelmingly Dan Brown style potboilers seems like a really bad call. Librarians as a group are one of the fiercest defenders of free speech we have in this society, and we subtlety undermine them when we crow about "free" boxes of mass market paperbacks and, at least in texas, where for awhile I stopped constantly to check, lots and lots of conservative Regnery-type political screeds and Protestant apologetics.

ianbicking2• 7 years ago

Who is using Little Free Libraries to attack the necessity of actual libraries? I've never seen that. The one instance they talk about is a mayor of a small suburb putting up some LFLs because the metro area library system started to charge a fee for access.

username223• 7 years ago

For those of you who didn't read to the end:

Nobody finds Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad in a Little Free Library—much less Wi-Fi, college counseling, or jobs services. A well-funded library system has little to fear.

"Little Free Libraries" have nothing to do with public libraries, and seem like a harmless way for people to spend their disposable income. They may be virtue signaling, charity, lawn decorations, recycling bins, or whatever, but I don't see any reason to complain about them.

hnlurker• 7 years ago

At least LFLs don't have vagrants and homeless lousing up the place like public libraries do.

FrozenVoid• 7 years ago

More interesting, there are "mobile libraries" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Books

jacinabox• 7 years ago

Wow what a hit piece, who knew that the venal politics of corporate America extended all the way down to the knitting circle level.

TheOperator• 7 years ago

The absolite vitrol at the fact that WHITE people were psying money out of their pocket for community libraries which had the side-benefit of projecting a certain image baffled me.

The fact that a paid product was used disperportionstely by rich peoppe who could afford them, and educated people that read was blindingly obvious. The fact that areas which already had libraries would have many of these paid mini libraries is fairly obvious because areas with libraries are full of readers. I fail to grasp the point of much of yheir demographic analysis.

For an article so firm that little libraries were virtue signalling this article was chock full of bog standard progressive virtue signalling like bashing on something because white people participate in it. Goddamned fucking White people reading and sharing after they've finished smh.

Against Little Free Libraries (2017)

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