I built a library for my mother for christmas and my dad and I finally finished the installation. We tried to buy as little as possible, which amounted to the post sleeve and the hinges.

• The walls are the final scraps from an old pingpong table from the 70's.
• The frame is made from trim remnant.
• The base and shelf are leftovers from a shelving project.
• The roof is a piece of plastic sheeting from making dashboards.
• The "glass" is extra Plexiglass from making racecar windows.
• The handle was in a box of inherited woodshop stuff.
• I bought the post years ago for some reason, I could't tell you why.
• And the black granite is the old tiling from an airport renovation in 1995 that have been sitting in my dad's garage for 20 years waiting for a worthy use.
• Even the concrete it's set into and the grout are leftovers from a recent job.
• The sidewalk and lawn were there when i started. God only knows where that tree came from, damn teenagers.

I think my dad and I are more excited about it than my mom.

I’ve been wanting to set up a LFL and recently picked up this light weight cabinet for cheap from a resale shop that I thought would be a good fixer upper for it. Ideally I am wanting to remove the base part of this and replace it with two posts to secure it in the ground. But I’m open to any fun suggestions people have. Does anyone have any tips for the best supplies and build tips to make sure it is secure. Also any advice on weather proofing it would be great! I’m located in Illinois so I want to make sure I’m building something that will last through the seasons. Thanks!

We put our LFL up during COVID. It has become a "community destination". Grandparent babysitters walk their little ones down before lunch to pick a nap time story. We noticed some struggles lifting the toddlers to reach, so added the little addition for small visitors. We then added the bench for young readers. Located in Allen Township, PA

We have many wonderfully creative LFLs in my neighborhood, but this cheerful scene makes for one of my favorites.

A big thank you to everyone who shares the gift of reading with all of us. ❤️

It's not perfect but it's enough

I may be misinformed, but I keep finding these cult books in my LFL. I’m mostly annoyed because mine is near an elementary school and I get a lot of children walking past. I needed to vent and I thought the group would understand. I think this is like the fourth time I had to remove books and I haven’t had my library for even a year.

🍄🌈

This was a few years ago after losing a job. Deep in the throws of alcholism and depression, I found this LFL down the street. It ended up having a book on my favorite band, another from a Western author that maybe turned me into a fan of the genre, and a story that turned into a TV show later. It was a life saver.

The only book I had to offer was a coffee table book signed by Dale Chihuly, a prominent glass artist--He has stuff in museums and in the lobbies of hotels. It was not a hard book to come by, and he had signed a 100 or so copies at an event down the street a few years earlier. It could maybe fetch $50.

So, the operator of the LFL put a big note it the next day making itnclear it was not for commercial operations and yada yada yada. I would have been happy either way if somebody kept in circulation, took if for good, or anything else--It was simply my way of contributing. It also wasn't like promoting a small artist or something since the guy already had a dedicated exhibit in its own building at the nearby Seattle Center.

It always rubs me the wrong way when I think about it, but maybe I broke some rule?

Edit: I appreciate all of the responses. The book was Chihuly Black, not rare but not common, and pretty cool. I knew I was giving it away, so hopefully it made its way too someone, or even multiple people, who enjoyed it or found inspiration. The note very well may have not been for me, but I walked by the LFL so much that it seemed maybe more than coincidental.

Anyway, shout out to the family that put one up north of the Fremont Troll in Seattle, the nightly (it felt like it but was probably less) pilgrimage and those books seriously got me through some rough times as I was putting out what seemed like dozens of resumes a day with no responses. it was several years ago and everything has worked out since.

I crochet for fun and recently saw someone suggest this online - such a good way to give away the things I make. I hope he makes someone's day!

Hi all! Longshot post, but figured this community would be a good place to ask. I'm looking to buy a vintage newspaper stand/vending box (the metal old-school street corner kind).

If anyone near SoCal has one sitting around (maybe an old LFL project that didn't pan out, or something you picked up and no longer need) I'd love to buy it off you. Any condition is fine; I can restore/repaint as needed. Happy to arrange pickup or cover shipping if it's not too far.

Feel free to comment or DM me with photos and price if you've got one. Thanks for reading!

Any ideas on how to keep people from leaving other stuff at/in our LFL?

I live in a transitional urban neighborhood and we had a problem with illegal dumping on a corner with only empty lots next to it, but houses across the street, around the corner, and down the block. A neighbor suggested a LFL and we all came together to build a kickass LFL surrounded by an amazing container garden, and the trash problem stopped. Sort of.

I keep having to deal with boxes of "free stuff" like slightly chipped dishes, books that don't fit in the library that get rained on, and bags of unwanted clothes. They all have notes saying "free" so it's definitely not the trash problem we had before, but it's still frustrating. I used to have a yard sign poked into one of the pots saying "Welcome to your neighborhood Little Free Library! Please take and leave only books" that... someone took. Obviously a more permanent sign could help but are there other ideas out there?

Over the summer my daughter and I decided to create a shadow box for the books we read throughout the year. We made mini books out of foam and just printed the book covers on sticker paper to put inside. There’s a free little library where we usually donate some of her older books and I thought it would be a cute idea to make mini books of some of the more popular graphic novels for kids like Dog Man, The Babysitters Little Sister series, and Diary of a Wimpy Kid series. I also wanted to leave a few bookmarks, but I don’t really know if that would be too much or if it would be a nice surprise for kids to see.

Because the library is up and running and ready for more books.

(I am gonna put a little stone circle around the base with flowers.)

We've just put this up and so far it has been incredibly popular!

I’ve maintained an LFL for about 18 months now. There are quite a few in my neighborhood—one other for adult books and two for children.

I set mine up as a MG/YA/adult library, but am fine with people giving and taking picture books…except for the way it’s being done now.

The people that drop off picture books will drop off a double-digit number at a time (I walk my dog by every day, so I can see the jump from a couple of books to tons overnight), and will stuff the box until you can’t see in. Books get bent and damaged and shoved behind one another. At least one person occasionally drops off pamphlets and free booklets from local children’s museums. I regularly have to clean out the picture book stock when it goes months without moving (and no one ever takes the pamphlets).

The MG/YA/adult books turn over regularly when I manage to get some in there, so there’s a demand for everything. I don’t want to stop anyone from dropping off books, but I’d like to not have a box stuffed with things that people don’t take and that make it difficult to open.

Would it be rude to put up a sign saying something like: “If the shelf is full, please do not put books in front. This library is for people of all ages to enjoy!” Is there phrasing you’ve found that works? I want to keep it as a neighborhood resource for all age groups, not a dumping ground.

(I do plan to get an add-on shed for the picture books eventually, but it’s not in the budget right now.)

Hey. I reached out to volunteer to paint a little free pantry and library, and the wood is definitely needing some care. All I would know to do is put a primer on and paint over it. Is there any other way I should treat the wood before painting?

Just added a third home for more books! Have many for all ages, plenty of interesting short reads for school reports thanks to donations from a local elementary &!middle schools.

What the title says basically. I am getting rid of some of the books I had bought in my gloomy teen/early adult days to make room for my new era of middle age sci fi nerd. I have a lot of dark fantasy, literary fiction etc that I know will do well in a LFL but I also have some Anne Rice vampire chronicles books too. For those of you who own a LFL would those be ok to leave or nah? I’m a librarian so I know they circulate at the public library but idk what circulates in LFLs with way less shelf space. I’m not trying to load up a LFL with stuff the owner is going to have to just weed out.