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street library in front of a family home
WeekendNotes
Noelene & Greg Dwyer add books to their library.
ABC News
Street Library Australia owed a large debt to U.S’s Little Free Libraries. The notion of a free, accessible place to find and leave books appealed to Australians who wanted to encourage neighbourliness and promote literacy. The project could ensure that all people have access to literature, even if they don’t come from bookish homes.
Nic Lowe started Street Library Australia after seeing this U.S project while travelling. Street Libraries are weatherproof boxes set up outside a house or in a public space, filled with books that locals can take from, or donate to. Nic said it was awesome that after an initial Builders Workshop building 30 libraries in Nov 2015, there were now c4,500 registered Street Libraries in Australia.
Nic Lowe started Street Library Australia after seeing this U.S project while travelling. Street Libraries are weatherproof boxes set up outside a house or in a public space, filled with books that locals can take from, or donate to. Nic said it was awesome that after an initial Builders Workshop building 30 libraries in Nov 2015, there were now c4,500 registered Street Libraries in Australia.
The Dwyers set up a Street Library outside their Bundaberg home Qld, noting that it was a great way to meet locals who also love books, recycle books and find new books. The library helped them create community spirit! It was wonderful to encourage locals to connect with their community; they had heaps of books, thanks to locals donating boxes full.
Street Libraries became popular during Covid when communities needed ways to stay connected in lockdowns. Denise Campbell set up her street library in Hervey Bay during the 2020-2 lockdowns that helped the neighbours to communicate with each other, even though they weren't able to go to each other's houses. Street Libraries also made it easier for kids to access books, rather than buying from a book shop or borrowing from a school library.
As long as the Street Library is installed securely and out of the way of foot traffic, there are few rules. Be sure to keep the Street Library in good condition, to encourage people to use it and avoid complaints! But there are some recommendations. 1]Weatherproof the library by incorporating eaves into the design, thus protecting the books from rain. 2]Paint the library with a thick undercoat layer, decorative layer and a clear external varnish. 3]A picture frame without the image makes an excellent door frame and allows good visibility. 4]Use an old bar fridge or vamp up an old TV cabinet. 5]Enter Street Library Australia, the book-loving organisation with heaps of ideas.
People can simply reach in and take what interests them; when they are finished, they can return them to the Street Library network, or pass them on to friends. If anyone has a book that they think others would enjoy, they can pop it into any Street Library they are walking past.
To get involved, interested families can attend one of the workshops, and build their own Street Library. Or purchase a pre-made Street Library and get started as a Street Librarian right away. Or donate books to someone else's Street Library.
**Another programme to be celebrated is the National Library of Israel/NLI which holds 5 million books, as well as the world’s largest collections of Hebraica, Judaica, rare manuscripts and artefacts. Founded in 1892, the NLI has accompanied the emerging state on its entire ride.
The Oct 2023 massacre left Israel broken hearted, so the Library got activated. Staff moved to the Library’s former building in Jerusalem’s Hebrew University, vacant since the institution’s recently relocated to its new site close to the Israel Museum. Volunteer teachers flocked to help; class rooms were scrubbed and fitted out; sports equipment and artworks from Bezalel Academy were taken so the shocked refugee children targeted by rockets could study and enjoy; permission was organised from the Ministry of Education.
The NLI fitted out a bookmobile that travelled around the country from Dec 2023, bringing hours of enchantment to refugee school children wherever they were. The vehicle, designed like a cuddly cat, was crammed full of children’s books; modern fiction, and beloved Israeli & general classics
cuddly cat bookmobile
J-Wire
Once the bookmobile parked, children gathered round to see by Hanoch Reim's play It’s Not Just a Story, featuring a cop who fined a bookseller without a licence, only to fall in love with the books. After the play, they provide children with time to browse and read the books that fill the van’s shelves. At the end of each session, every child received a book as a gift, donated by Israeli book publishers.
Children select their books from inside the van
and can sit down outside or take the book home
jewishrenaissance
The bookmobile visited children at 40 refugee centres serving those displaced from Israel’s border communities where the October tragedy occurred. The Education and Culture Dept at the National Library said in these difficult days, the children need magic that can create stories, words and spirit especially for them, so the librarians avoided all stories dealing with trauma and fear. Having survived terrorism, the bookmobile became a first-class educational activity that helped children return to the learning experience in an enriching, resilient way in terrible times.
By gifting the children with magic and relief, the youngsters learned about the transformational power of reading. Additionally in an age where screens and virtual technology reign supreme, this bookmobile project planned to revive a love of books. You might enjoy reading Khoollect .
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36 comments:
There is a house in my area that has a street library in front of their garden. I have taken a book or two myself, and replaced them with books that I had previously taken to read. But I never asked the family if customers handle the books with respect.
Bookmobiles have a long history dating back to the 1850s, when a horse-drawn collection of books began making the rounds in England. In the United States, the first bookmobile hit the streets in Maryland in 1905. The idea is largely attributed to librarian, Mary Lemist Titcomb who belived that a book wagon was a way for rural residents to have access to books, but also “do much more in cementing friendships.”
See Books And Cookies for the history of the bookmobile.
We Have them here too, in the parks. It's a great initiative! Hopefully, some library person keeps a close eye on these community libraries.
Boa tarde. Uma excelente terça-feira. Essas Artes Urbanas são mostradas dentro de um parque no centro da cidade.
I think this is an awesome idea, it is something I have heard about but never seen
We have them in bus stops and old phone boxes. There are also shelves near to the exits of supermarkets. I think it is a wonderful idea for passing and swapping books.
We have a resident that has a street library outside their home, but we also have a free library in our community centre set up by volunteer residents and filled with books donated by residents. It works along the same principle as street libraries.
A lovely story about the mobile library looking like a cat.
Hels,
have you come across the ones in Afghanistan?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qmjV_CBo69Y
They are a great idea. One I've noticed in Port Melbourne doesn't have a door, but it does face away from the prevailing weather direction.
I think they are a great idea. I know where several are but I need to catch a bus to get to them. I have occasionally left a book or three at my local bus stops for anyone to pick up.
Deb
me too. There are two street libraries within walking distance of my house, and I can see from looking inside that the books are in good condition and stored properly. But during covid I also wondered if there had ever been a worry about theft or damage.
Books and Cookies
thank you for the history that went wayyyy back before what I had ever known. Your photos are treasures.
DUTA
You are very fortunate because reading in the parks would be a delight in summer. Can readers take a book home to read in winter?
Asking a librarian to keep an eye on the small park libraries is a good idea and easily done, but I don't think they would do it for garden libraries in private homes.
Luiz
thank you. An outside location is excellent for most of the year.
Jo-Anne
the first time I saw a glassed-in box full of books in a family garden near my home a few years ago, I too had no idea what it was. Thankfully individual families wrote up their successes and concerns on-line.
Cherry Pie
it is a brilliant idea to put books in bus stops and outside super markets because people spend a bit of time there at least weekly. But if they are not in private homes' gardens, who looks after the collection?
diane
your community centre library is a great idea. Pedestrians in a street do not have much contact with their neighbours, but locals in their community centre can have pleasure from the book collection AND mix with their neighbours.
Because it was particularly for children, the Israeli bookmobile did everything to make their project appealing to youngsters. They succeeded :)
Hello Hels, The classic story of a bookmobile is Parnassus on Wheels, by Christopher Morley. It is a fun, short read, and incidentally, not from where I got my screen name!
--Jim
Liam
Your reference said: The mobile library is one of 5 school buses set up by a local organisation, established by an Afghan Oxford University graduate. For a few years before the Taliban took over in Aug 2021, hundreds of children used the mobile libraries daily as they crisscrossed the Afghan capital, as many schools lack their own library in Afghanistan. In Dec 2021 a mobile library bus went to a Kabul orphanage and opened its doors for the first time since the Taliban took over the country.
The main activity was the creation of two one-room community libraries together with local leaders, camp leaders and youths. The libraries will be run by local volunteers and books collected with the help of ASCHIANA and individual book donors. Not a huge project for a country with a population of 41 million people, but a start.
Andrew
I found the Port Melbourne garden library you referred to. It says:
"The Little Free library is for little free people. And thanks to the Inner South Community Health Service, more of these gems, just like this one standing tall at George Walter’s Garden in Port Melbourne, will be popping up around our Neighbourhoods. Take a book home or drop one in, there’s little doubt as to why visitors to these little libraries, #livelovelocal".
Interested people can help by adding books, building seats near the library or sealing the library door with glass/perspex.
River
it is a fantastic idea, a rare contribution to a happier community in this VERY tough economy.
You might like to talk to all your neighbours to see if anyone has the energy to build a garden library near home. Then get everyone to go through their own libraries to make a couple of book donations.
Parnassus
you are a clever soul :)
Roger Mifflin is part pixie, part sage, part noble savage and all God's creature. With his traveling book wagon named Parnassus, he moves through the New England countryside of 1915 on an itinerant mission of enlightenment; he comes to represent the heart and soul of the book world. But a certain spirited disgruntled spinster may change all that. A roaring good adventure yarn spiced with fiery roadside brawls, heroic escapes from death, the history of Yankee cookery and a rare love story (goodreads).
It's a wonderful idea, we have a few around in various places Hels.
Margaret
and easy to establish. I trust my neighbours totally, but I wonder if we should put gates on our two drives into the front garden. At the moment, our house is more open than Flinders St Railway Station.
Street libraries sound such a good idea. Anything that brings a smile to a traumatised child's face has got to be a success. The cat bus is wonderful.
We have Little Free Libraries (as we call them here in the US) here too. They are a great idea. And thanks for your comment on my book post. I do think some historical fiction has come a long way to keeping more true to the story, but you are right, authors can take lots of liberties. However, I just read a non-fiction book about John Wilkes Booth which was also in my book post, and there were times I thought the author had to have made up parts of the story. Not the event, but what he thought the main character (JW Booth) was thinking. So who knows. Either way you learn something and as long as you are aware that it is fiction or non-fiction, it still is worth it. Have a great rest of your week Hels.
Erika
one of the issues we always worried about in history lectures was
1.what was true,
2.what was believed by the readers, but turned out to be an honest mistake later on and
3.what was never true.
So I don't mind fiction, even blatantly silly fiction, if that is what it was advertised as. But if King Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson were presented as having a romantic, passionate marriage in order to save the British nation in WW2, that was intentionally wrong. Writers now say that Edward was going to turn over his nation to Hitler in exchange for being back on the throne.
A very good example for re-using books, dear Helen!
Today I brought a big paper bag of books to dm (something like Boots, a chain for mainly cosmetics or household wares) - they are in the next village, and sell our books to Amazon or others and the money goes into good projects.
Time before I had to transport the books (and paper is heavy) to Fürth - in that city they have little book houses as you describe them and those who want take out what they appreciate.
Britta
When we went into Covid lockdown in Feb 2020 and worked from home, I planned to empty our studies of old books that were no longer useful. There were 2000 reference books that I didn't know what to do with. Had they been novels, I could have set up the biggest street library in the southern hemisphere. So I put them in boxes and placed them on the footpath in front of the house. Within 3 weeks, they had all gone... to loving homes, I hope.
jabblog
I remember how traumatised we all were during 3+ years of covid, and probably many people have still not returned to pre-covid normalcy. But primary school children are even more vulnerable, as we have seen since the terrorism last October. I think the bookmobile project understood that vulnerability and did their best to put some joy in their lives.
Thankfully there are many other bookmobiles for school aged children these days. But they look (on line I must admit) more functional and less lovable than the Israeli ones.
Hels, I live in housing trust flats and don't even like 90% of the neighbours much less speak to them. Several are quite proud of not having read a single book since they left school.
River
I am glad you said that. The project in Australia tried to give priority to the all people who did NOT come from bookish homes. Of course that does not mean that those individuals regretted coming from homes without books.
Re not reading a single book since school, the various book projects recognise that the new generations don't read books _even at school_. My youngest grandchildren are quite smart, but they never read books. Thank goodness for Kindle, I say.
Boa noite de quinta-feira. Excelente matéria, minha querida amiga. Aqui no Brasil, também temos esses tipos de biblioteca populares.
Luiz
Once families heard of street libraries, it seemed like a worthwhile and easy project to establish in the front of their own gardens. Good on Brasil :)
I saw these little libraries all over northern Italy. So pretty. The community outreach programme you mention sounds like a worthy project
Mandy
I knew about the garden library near my home, and actually used it. But I hadn't heard of anyone else installing or supporting such a facility in Melbourne, Italy or anywhere else. So I found "Street Library Australia" to very helpful, as you will find in the UK or anywhere else where street libraries are popular.
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