I figured out why Little Libraries seem to have such a capacity for taking books...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Dana K White makes sense to me on the reselling issue.

If this guy wants to put in the work to sell the books, that's more work than I'm prepared to do. I used to take used kids clothes to a church that gave them out for free. A worker told me that people were turning around and selling them at a consignment store. Well, I wasn't prepared to go to the effort if consigning, and I'm pretty sure the clients doing this needed money more than me.

https://www.aslobcomesclean.com/2013/01/why-i-dont-care-who-sells-my-stuff/

Maybe thinking that resellers need the money and are being industrious will help me be less judgmental, but I think it still bothers me.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dana K White makes sense to me on the reselling issue.

If this guy wants to put in the work to sell the books, that's more work than I'm prepared to do. I used to take used kids clothes to a church that gave them out for free. A worker told me that people were turning around and selling them at a consignment store. Well, I wasn't prepared to go to the effort if consigning, and I'm pretty sure the clients doing this needed money more than me.

https://www.aslobcomesclean.com/2013/01/why-i-dont-care-who-sells-my-stuff/

Maybe thinking that resellers need the money and are being industrious will help me be less judgmental, but I think it still bothers me.

Why? It’s a pure economics issue. If you want your books ONLY to be given away for free, then you will need to make additional effort to donate them through a different and more exclusive channel. But you don’t want to make that effort do you? Much less costly to just put them in a LFL. Meanwhile the reseller finds the books of value and connects them to people beyond your neighborhood who are willing to pay. Unless you were willing to seek out those folks and get the books to them for free, you are taking away their opportunity to get affordable books. All because why, you’re mad that the reseller makes a few bucks off your junk?

At the end of the day if you are not willing to put the resources in to make sure your books go only where you want them to go, I don’t see how you can see the book reseller as engaged in some kind of immoral activity. he is doing work that you do not want to do.

[Anonymous]

It’s very low, but not illegal.

[Anonymous]

I have a LFL and I just stamp my books and put a sharpie mark on the bar code (stops the scanner people).

The more common clean-outs are done by religious fanatics. They will take every children's book and YA book and leave a religious pamphlet. My husband once saw them at the box and went outside to ask them why they were taking all the kids' books. They wouldn't speak to him! He told them to get off our property and don't come back. I know it's hard to enforce since the box is inviting people into our yard, but they haven't been back, so maybe that worked.

I imagine some people take our books to sell (my ARC of James was gone in a couple hours), but if they are that hard up, so be it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Dana K White makes sense to me on the reselling issue.

If this guy wants to put in the work to sell the books, that's more work than I'm prepared to do. I used to take used kids clothes to a church that gave them out for free. A worker told me that people were turning around and selling them at a consignment store. Well, I wasn't prepared to go to the effort if consigning, and I'm pretty sure the clients doing this needed money more than me.

https://www.aslobcomesclean.com/2013/01/why-i-dont-care-who-sells-my-stuff/

Maybe thinking that resellers need the money and are being industrious will help me be less judgmental, but I think it still bothers me.

Why? It’s a pure economics issue. If you want your books ONLY to be given away for free, then you will need to make additional effort to donate them through a different and more exclusive channel. But you don’t want to make that effort do you? Much less costly to just put them in a LFL. Meanwhile the reseller finds the books of value and connects them to people beyond your neighborhood who are willing to pay. Unless you were willing to seek out those folks and get the books to them for free, you are taking away their opportunity to get affordable books. All because why, you’re mad that the reseller makes a few bucks off your junk?

At the end of the day if you are not willing to put the resources in to make sure your books go only where you want them to go, I don’t see how you can see the book reseller as engaged in some kind of immoral activity. he is doing work that you do not want to do.

People really think like this? You have no clue, PP. The LFL is not about economics -- it's a library. It's about SHARING, not TAKING or SELLING. If there is a more economical way to handle used books, who the hell cares? You can't see the forest for the trees. This is why we need more liberal arts requirements in all majors.

[Anonymous]

You all are hilarious. First of all 99% of all the books in EVERY LFL are trash. Second you can't make any money selling books for $2-$4 including free shipping on ebay. Have you all done the math?!

Personally I think all the LFL's need to go they have nothing but trash in them they make the neighborhood look terrible. They're like old, sad empty newspaper boxes at this point. All those "empathy" signs and "be kind signs" all of it is just useless, meaning less life clutter.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Disgusting behavior. Sheesh and I feel bad taking more than 1 when my kids and I go.

You’re the classic overscrupulous type who ironically judges anyone who doesn’t conform to your exaggerated sense of morality.

take as many books as you want. It’s ok.

It's not "overscrupulous" to expect people not to steal. Your bar is very low, PP.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fine with me. The books are getting reused and someone is making a buck off them.

Yeah, but people put them in there wiht the idea that their neighbors would enjoy their old books. And it's just some perv in a basement out in the burbs selling them on Ebay and dumping the rest.

I guess the flip side is that people put a lot of crappy books in there—no, no one wants your religious tracts or your 15 year old, outdated college textbook on "leadership". If these guys don't clear them out, they'd clutter it up.

Um, what? This is a pretty big cognitive leap.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Fine with me. The books are getting reused and someone is making a buck off them.

This! You could have resold it yourself if you wanted, or just let it clutter up your home. It’s 2025 — this person is getting a book into the hands of one of the few people who would truly enjoy it. How many readers are actually driving around checking little libraries for one specific title? Not many. Most are counting on resellers to find, advertise, package, and ship it to them.

[Anonymous]

There is no way to know if this behavior is good or bad unless someone implements book tracking and surveys neighbors to find out if they wanted the books that were taken, and how many people got books they wanted via the reseller, and how many wanted books got trashed by the reseller as worthless.

If you want a limit on taking from LFL, post a sign with rules, and post a security camera, and report the theft.

Or put an electronic lock on it and give out individualized key codes to neighbors.

LFL was always about performative virtue signalling cuteness, not literacy.

[Anonymous]

You are mad that someone is "stealing" your trash? And you don't even HAVE a LFL, you just leave books in them occasionally? Get a life.

If you want to control where the books you get rid of go, donate them to a school or library or whatever. (Hint: they probably don't want them.) Otherwise, get over yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Fine with me. The books are getting reused and someone is making a buck off them.

This! You could have resold it yourself if you wanted, or just let it clutter up your home. It’s 2025 — this person is getting a book into the hands of one of the few people who would truly enjoy it. How many readers are actually driving around checking little libraries for one specific title? Not many. Most are counting on resellers to find, advertise, package, and ship it to them.

But she chose to contribute them to a LFL instead. That was what she chose to do with her property.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:There is no way to know if this behavior is good or bad unless someone implements book tracking and surveys neighbors to find out if they wanted the books that were taken, and how many people got books they wanted via the reseller, and how many wanted books got trashed by the reseller as worthless.

If you want a limit on taking from LFL, post a sign with rules, and post a security camera, and report the theft.

Or put an electronic lock on it and give out individualized key codes to neighbors.

LFL was always about performative virtue signalling cuteness, not literacy.

I disagree. I've read a lot of books from LFL that I wouldn't have read otherwise -- especially during COVID. I appreciate them.

[Anonymous]

And I did so not caring whether it went directly to a neighbor (who knows? the neighbor could be a perv) or passed through the hands of a reseller.

[Anonymous]

So people are using them as trash cans in my neighborhood there is even dog poop bags left in them with the dog poop.