Little Free Library Etiquette

[Anonymous]

We are buying a house and want to put a Free Library in… but I just checked the map and of the 10 or so in that town, 1 is on our cross street really close to our house… like 3 houses away. Would it be… I don’t know… annoying or obnoxious for us to put a Free Library up so close? There are no other Free Libraries for a mile in every direction.

[Anonymous]

I would pay a bit of attention to the other one (or meet the owners -even better). Does it seem full and used? If so they two would be great...more space and variety. We have two in our neighborhood (though not that close). If one is full, I walk to the other. If I want a kids book, I check both.

If the existing one is not well used by itself then I might not add the second. You might just be disappointed if it is not well used.

[Anonymous]

I have no dog in the little free library fight. But as someone who walks through a neighborhood of houses with occasional free libraries, that would seem very weird. Could even feel aggressive to the person who put in the existing one.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I would pay a bit of attention to the other one (or meet the owners -even better). Does it seem full and used? If so they two would be great...more space and variety. We have two in our neighborhood (though not that close). If one is full, I walk to the other. If I want a kids book, I check both.

If the existing one is not well used by itself then I might not add the second. You might just be disappointed if it is not well used.

Thanks that’s a good idea! We will be completely new to the town, so no idea yet if the LFL are used.

[Anonymous]

What about a little food pantry instead?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have no dog in the little free library fight. But as someone who walks through a neighborhood of houses with occasional free libraries, that would seem very weird. Could even feel aggressive to the person who put in the existing one.

I wondered about that, but also wondered if technically being on a different street than the other would make it less weird.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about a little food pantry instead?

I love this idea. But a caveat: a neighbor did this during early pandemic and people started dropping perishables off with no warning, so she would come home to 8 gallons of milk and have no clue how long they've been out. Or trays of food that she didn't know came from a clean kitchen. She was responsible for dumping everything and it became too much.

[Anonymous]

i love LFL. Especially when they are a little miniature of the person's house. Maybe I am missing something, but I don't know why it would be bad to have two close together?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about a little food pantry instead?

I love this idea. But a caveat: a neighbor did this during early pandemic and people started dropping perishables off with no warning, so she would come home to 8 gallons of milk and have no clue how long they've been out. Or trays of food that she didn't know came from a clean kitchen. She was responsible for dumping everything and it became too much.

Yeesh!! That’s awful!

[Anonymous]

No such thing as too many books, and who cares what the other people think, if you want a library build yourself a library

[Anonymous]

The more the merrier!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We are buying a house and want to put a Free Library in… but I just checked the map and of the 10 or so in that town, 1 is on our cross street really close to our house… like 3 houses away. Would it be… I don’t know… annoying or obnoxious for us to put a Free Library up so close? There are no other Free Libraries for a mile in every direction.

3 houses away IS really close. I think it’s weird but who cares what I think? Just check your hoa in case there are rules for this.

[Anonymous]

Don’t. They are cool in theory. But in my experience, are lame. In wealthy neighborhoods, the families are already going to the regular library weekly at least or are buying plenty of books. In the neighborhoods where kids might not have access to books frequently- they either aren’t used or nothing gets replaced. Even in the neighborhoods were they are used, the replacements are not good books. They are the cast offs grandma got the kids from Goodwill, free at Dr office, random religious book and so on.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Don’t. They are cool in theory. But in my experience, are lame. In wealthy neighborhoods, the families are already going to the regular library weekly at least or are buying plenty of books. In the neighborhoods where kids might not have access to books frequently- they either aren’t used or nothing gets replaced. Even in the neighborhoods were they are used, the replacements are not good books. They are the cast offs grandma got the kids from Goodwill, free at Dr office, random religious book and so on.

Agree with this.

[Anonymous]

If you want to steward a LFL, by all means put one up. If you want to differentiate your LFL from your neighbor’s LFL, you could dedicate it entirely to children’s books or young adult books or books with diverse characters or something like that. I wouldn’t care if I had a LFL and a neighbor put one up. Anyone thinking like that is a weirdo. It’s a free resource for the community.