The nicest ones are always full of new looking books and even candy to encourage kids to look inside. One of them near me gets so many nice donations that the caretaker put a bench next to it that you can open and place books into. Usually the bench is also full of nice books.
I kind of appointed myself to take care of the one near my daughter's school because most of the students are low income (a "Title 1" school in legal terms), but in a blue collar way. The box is often disorganized. The children are like vultures when there are actually good books in there. I cleaned it out and while the box was mostly empty, there was crumpled paper in there, someone's old birthday cards, chewed up board books, and there are always evangelical prayer books, bibles, tracts, etc because apparently the box is someone's mission field. I carefully time my donations to the box to be shortly before school lets out so that books like Captain Underpants will get snatched up by the kids instead of by someone with a religious agenda.
When I drive downtown (~10 minutes from my house), to an area that has mostly black students, the little free library is empty. The layer of dust on the shelves is undisturbed, and there are cobwebs. There has also been a debacle recently where a library branch had to close completely during the hours immediately after school lets out because the school district doesn't provide bussing, so while waiting for the city bus, kids would go into the library. I saw with my own eyes that there were many kids doing homework. But there were also kids causing the elevator to lock up by jumping in it, vandalizing things and starting fist fights. The potential bookworms there have few opportunities to develop their love of literature because of all this.
I guess I'm just posting to encourage people with extra children's books to consider diverting a bit out of the way to find a sad empty little free library to fill. There is a "last chance" Goodwill near me that takes unsold items from other thrift stores and sells them by the pound. I rummaged around there this week and found a lot of good books! Goosebumps, the box car kids, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and a copy of The Hunger Games all went into a little free library and are probably already gone. I paid $0.89 per pound for about 7 pounds of books to give away because pulp fiction paperbacks are pretty lightweight.
Full disclosure, I'm in Ohio and many kids here are part of Dolly Parton's imagination library, which is wonderful. But once the kids are old enough to want early chapter books instead of picture books, people don't donate those as much. And before anyone jumps in about ebooks, a lot of these students have to turn in their cellphones at the beginning of the school day. So that makes them need actual books even more.
If you've read this far, thanks.
by [deleted]
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There’s a solution to this. ‘Borrow’ from the rich kids free library and return to the poor kids free library.
this is a great post. i see something similar between the two libraries that are within 1000 metres of one another, around where i live.
i don’t really feel right actively cannibalizing the more privileged one, but i dont put my own contributions in there anymore. i also try to put in multiple books at a time, because a free library with one or two items in it is just sad and doesn’t inspire anyone else to start using it.
It’s a wonderful initiative, though! Maybe the community that set it up would help pitch in to get some more bulk pockets for the empty ones if they’re that cheap. And maybe you could ask at the school if someone knows who the biblethumper is or put a notice requesting no religious texts. For a kid, nothing would kill the intention to read like a stack of bibles, i would imagine.
To everyone who thinks the low income libraries are empty because their communities do not value reading, consider that people are probably stealing and selling those books.
I live near a free “take a book/leave a book” library on a street corner that is covered with notices begging people not to steal/sell the books, but it doesn’t matter.
Multiple times per week someone will come by and take all the books at once. They’ll then add them to their cart with a sign that says “Book Fair” and try to sell them along with other stolen items.
IMO it’s not that low income communities don’t value reading. It’s that being able to give away quality books is a luxury that rich people have that most others do not.
You may want to check in with your local library. The Friends of the Library group may be willing to help by supplying you with books for this.
It would also be interesting to know what the distribution of publicly-funded libraries is across these communities, staffed with paid and trained librarians and supporting community events and programs for all ages. The little free libraries are charming and reflect the good intentions of people, but they are dependent on individual charity, and the word “free” in their title is a bit confusing — aren’t regular libraries free at the point of access, too? It seems unsurprising that the phenomenon of little free libraries has arisen during a period of attacks on publicly-funded institutions and their value.
Based on the library closing detail, I’m in the same area of Ohio, and our suburban LFL also is always full of religious tracts and pamphlets lol.
We have an awesome free library (it’s at a persons home) they get so many donations it’s incredible. They have a separate area covered by a tarp with other donations such as food and clothing. They are old so it must be hard for them to keep up. You can always open your own!
At the end of the year, our title 1 school gifts new, beautiful, relevant graphic novels to our kids. At the end of the year during locker cleanup I fish dozens of copies of them out of the trash, brand new and unread, so I can hold on to them for next year’s kids. We also pick up many that are shredded and tossed around the schoolyard.
Most of my optimism on this topic died years ago.
Options for helping fuel your local (less well ‘funded’) free library:
*When you resell your books, always ask them if they will give you back the books they won’t put on the shelves, because you want to put them in the free library. (Most stores now just take everything even if they don’t think they can sell them, but if you mention free libraries most of them will give them back to you for that purpose. They want to help too.)
*There are also often library sales where they will sell you kids books for a discount in bulk, which is good free-library fodder. Especially if your local Friends Of The Library group knows what your goal is, they’ll help out too, as they end up with donations they can’t resell.
*As OP stated, Goodwill/HPB Outlets and other thrift stores will often do bulk sales on “poor condition” books, many of which are sold by the pound and actually have decent reads in them.
*Hosting a “book drive”, similar to a food drive, in your neighborhood get surprising results. (If you’re part of a community, like a church or whatever, you can often organize a big one of these and have books for multiple donations.)
*Make sure your friends with younger kids know that when the books (and toys!) fall out of favor with their young ones that you have a place to take them that won’t reject them for ‘condition issues’. I found out a lot of these get thrown out!
https://www.hindislibraries.org/ is a nonprofit that can help you get the 4-6th grade appropriate books that are hard to come by. I’ve looked at using them to stock my little free library that’s on a popular walking route near our middle school, but so far the community has kept it going.
Thank you for posting this. I work for a big book store chain in Canada, and every year we do a fundraiser drive where each store partners with a school to buy books for their library. I’ve heard first hand from librarians and teachers just how bad the kids WANT to read, but the school isn’t given resources to make it happen.
I’ll go through our books and see if there’s a little free library somewhere I can donate to 💕
I live in a not so great area in ohio as well and we have one in our neighborhood and the books just keep getting stolen.
Another note about the ebooks…I work at a library, and the < 20 crowd seems less fond of ebooks than my own generation was. They’ll come in asking for school reading, and we won’t have the physical book available without a wait(because you waited until august to do your summer reading, you fool!), but it’s available through libby or even project gutenberg if it’s a classic. They nearly universally look at me like I’ve grown a second head if I suggest that as an alternative to stressing over having to buy the book, though. Despite being otherwise glued to their phones, they seem to prefer physical books. Maybe they want to be able to multitask texting/watching videos while they read, and the e-book apps make that too unwieldy? Can’t say.
sadly this problem goes beyond libraries
chain grocery stores are nicer in the wealthier neighborhoods (more selection, cleaner, etc), chain movie theaters, even chain fast food, etc , etc
We have a gift giving one near me.
I saw someone post they had put 225 individual pairs of new socks that were still in packaging (bear in mind it’s a tiny town). Every single pair was gone within the hour.
Someone showed up and took them all. Giver was mad and said I was gonna keep refilling it periodically and now was finding other ways to do it.
Some people are terrible.
If you have an address to send it, I’ll send some books.
I have a ton of books from my childhood and teen years I want to donate somewhere, but I don’t know how to find places to do so or what would be better options then others.
Any advice?
I live in a struggling majority black neighborhood and ours was just full of bibles, that really pissed me off. There’s a church on every darn street corner here; there’s no lack of access to Jesus for those that want it.
I’m unemployed right now but that’s something I’d like to contribute to when my cards are a little better.
I worked in a library in a diverse community with moderate poverty and above-average crime rates. Across the street was a shelter for people experiencing homelessness, and within walking distance were various businesses and schools. Our regular patrons included kids, teens, parents (mostly women), and individuals facing housing or mental health challenges. We used to have a book swap rack in the vestibule (an area not covered by the security camera) where patrons could take a book without checking it out and leave one if they had any to share. Only mass-market paperbacks were allowed. Once finished, they could return the book at the front desk, though people often put them back directly on the rack.
One day (I wasn’t on shift at the time), a man came in with a cart and took all the books. He repeated this on another occasion.
The reality in communities with limited resources is that a few people may misuse these services, impacting the whole community. We eventually moved the rack inside to prevent this again, something we should’ve done years ago, but in my five years working there, this was the only time our swap system was taken advantage of.
Unfortunately, incidents like this cause hesitation around supporting communities with honor-based systems, where there may be a greater risk of theft. It’s often the kids and families who would benefit most who miss out as a result. I don’t know what to say or what the solution is. I read another comment that mentioned people need income first, and books second. If we improve people’s lives, things like this might not happen. I like the thought of that.
Inspired me to donate some books and leave them in various parts of the city while I’m out and about. Thank you! Keep reading.
My kids went to a private school in Oakland CA on a partial scholarship. We had a book drive there where parents just brought in their duplicate kids books / literature. There result was a room filled as high as you could reach with boxes of books. I loaded up my van with books and volunteers to distribute the books to local public schools and when we got to the schools they had few books on their classroom shelves – some had ZERO. More than one teacher was crying as we unloaded – I just don’t understand how it can get to that point.
There’s no way to do these things in poor neighbourhoods because you need a high floor of behaviour, i.e. the worst behaviour has to be good. Poor neighbourhoods have low behavioural floors. Anything that can be transmuted into money at a higher rate than their day job, if they have one, will be transmuted into money.
In rich neighbourhoods, the commons is less valuable exploited than shared at some utilization. In poor neighbourhoods, they race to exploit it. Poor neighbourhoods cannot have nice things.
I would not run a free library in a poor neighbourhood. It would have to cost money. I grew up in one myself with a paid library and it was very effective. You place a deposit and then get to borrow books. I think that’s a good model.
It shows culture does plays an important role in education and potential future success
I have one across the street from me. It’s an upper middle class neighborhood and every day many people stop to look, take a book, and leave a book. There’s multiple in the neighborhood and some older adults walk around the neighborhood looking for good swaps. They’re all very neat and tidy, and the homeowners who have them take good care of them. I could never see that happening in the towns I grew up in.
I was caretaker for a LFL in a low income area and one thing that was useful was posting on nextdoor just flagging for people when the library was empty. That usually prompted a community refill 🙂
We had to remove a free little library in a lower income neighborhood because the kids started using it for drug exchanges. Ruined it for everyone.
Thank you for putting those books in that library.
I teach in a book desert—it’s the most populous city in the state, but there are virtually no opportunities to buy new books in the city limits, even if your parents have a little extra money for that.
Libraries are key, and the more there are, the more conveniently located they are, and the better stocked they are, the more kids will read.
I have a classroom library. I’ve had kids thank me on behalf of their parents for making available books that younger siblings of my students ended up reading.
Access to books makes a difference.
Fight for a school librarian and library in every school!
We have them dotted all over the place & I try to spread out my donations.
I found 12 boxes of books from when my kids were small so every week I’ll take another five books to one of the libraries & share the love around.
I think these little free libraries might be one of the best things we have ever done in our community. Reading is so important & should be encouraged.
What makes me sad is the same thing. They installed 4 free little libraries in 2 housing properties. The 1st property the little library is on a hill for some reason & the door doesn’t stay shut. So the books just fallout. When they 1st installed them we were super excited but were only met with really old children books, bibles, devotional & board games that didn’t have all the pieces. We go right up the street to the park in a beater neighborhood that has a free little library & there are always so many good books. I often see parents putting new books or children getting a book or two when we’re at the park playing. I also noticed that reading is not encouraged in the area we stay in. So the books that were in the free little library when they 1st installed them the children ripped them up and they were just all over the property. I’m an avid reader & encourage my children to read to. I keep my books unless it’s a book I DNF then I put them in the free little library or I give them to a friend who may be more interested in it than me. For my children if they don’t have an emotional attachment to the book we ask friends and children around the neighborhood if they want any books. They also like to keep books but as they get older they get new books & grow out of their old books. So we can let them go more easier. I can say that since we started giving books to the neighborhood children that more of them are reading. I often get asked by one of the children if I can buy them a book & I go straight on ThriftBooks & get it for them. Our little library wasn’t even installed properly and is more for show than actual usage. I don’t donate to the free little libraries in the better neighborhoods because I find the children & give them the books. They love coming to talk to me or my children about the books they’ve read & I love it so much.
If anyone needs books for these shop your local library’s book sales! We always have tons and tons of extra books at the end of ours, and our library at least has a “pay what you want” model.
Thank you for caring.
I am a librarian and help stock little free libraries around me with discarded library books(as part of a library agreement with the city bla blah blah). Would your library be open to a partnership like this? Especially if they had a volunteer or 2 to help move things around?