little free library
Aug. 6th, 2023 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
adrian_turtleDo any of you have experience with running a Little Free Library? There are lots of them around here, some of which seem to have regular circulation and others go empty or feral. I know a certain amount of curation is necessary to prevent them from getting packed solid with religious tracts or textbooks about Fortran. (ETA: I am peripherally involved with one now, and worry that we are taking too many books out of the box to keep in the house.)
It's not at all clear how much time and space the curation needs to maintain circulation. If the shelves are too empty, neighbors won't take any books, so the steward needs to have some books on hand to restock. And if the shelves are packed too full, neighbors won't donate, so the steward needs to remove a few books and either discard them or add them to the restocking pile. Obviously, people who don't like to throw books away tend to start LFLs. (Yes, it's a TOEFL prep book from 1970 when "he" was the generic 3rd person pronoun and nobody seems to want it, so maybe I should bring it into the house and put it out later. Maybe someone will want it someday!) Things could pile up.
It looks like it's not feasible to run a LFL without some stockpile to allow for overflow and refilling, but I worry that the stockpile will take over the building if we don't put some prior limits on it Unfortunately, I have no idea what limits are reasonable: the volume of the LFL itself? five times the volume? Any advice would be appreciated.
It's not at all clear how much time and space the curation needs to maintain circulation. If the shelves are too empty, neighbors won't take any books, so the steward needs to have some books on hand to restock. And if the shelves are packed too full, neighbors won't donate, so the steward needs to remove a few books and either discard them or add them to the restocking pile. Obviously, people who don't like to throw books away tend to start LFLs. (Yes, it's a TOEFL prep book from 1970 when "he" was the generic 3rd person pronoun and nobody seems to want it, so maybe I should bring it into the house and put it out later. Maybe someone will want it someday!) Things could pile up.
It looks like it's not feasible to run a LFL without some stockpile to allow for overflow and refilling, but I worry that the stockpile will take over the building if we don't put some prior limits on it Unfortunately, I have no idea what limits are reasonable: the volume of the LFL itself? five times the volume? Any advice would be appreciated.
