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Letitbemesickgirl t1_j2x1ajy wrote

Love it!

There’s a free little library in a nearby town that is children themed. We love stopping there and trading our books

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CameronDemortez t1_j2xygxr wrote

Someone burned the little library down in my town.

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jordanhillis t1_j2y0aur wrote

That’s the saddest thing I’ve heard today. I’m sorry.

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HolyShitWereAlive t1_j2yqay9 wrote

Where one head is severed, two grow in its place.

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CameronDemortez t1_j2z4q1i wrote

It’s been replaced over a year ago. It was just a trash move by some kid I’m guessing. This one was a little different. It had 3 different heights for different age groups of readers.

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Jaren56 t1_j2ydclg wrote

We have one in every neighborhood around me and they've have to be repaired countless times. They started as a super cute cabinet with glass windows, but of course they got broken. Then they tried acrylic, which also got broken.

It is now just a solid wooden box lol

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RedTuna777 t1_j2zfrt1 wrote

They don't help much as people hope they would. Usually because the places they are put up and maintained are already well to do. The ones they are vandalized and destroyed are on that path instead. It's more of an indication of the health of a community than an influencer of it.

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CameronDemortez t1_j30kxd4 wrote

Some of the ones I have close to me have a pantry and books. These are in the lower income areas. Always a assortment of canned goods

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eolson3 t1_j2z44ws wrote

Where? Someone willing to replace it?

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CameronDemortez t1_j30lc70 wrote

It was replaced in 4-5 days. Its a old retired couples property and they do not mess around lol.

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rollc_at t1_j313oe7 wrote

There's dozens of free libraries scattered all over my city (Vienna); everyone who's looking here: find one in your town, and if there isn't one, it's time to start it!

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Letitbemesickgirl t1_j31lpo2 wrote

I can’t wait til I’m a homeowner, first thing I’m doing is putting one

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rollc_at t1_j31oixc wrote

You don't need to own a home. One of our libraries is in a repurposed phone booth, another is a modified storefront, etc. Just talk to the local government and/or the community.

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Adalovedvan t1_j2wu0g4 wrote

That is an absolutely brilliant idea!

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Buck_Thorn t1_j2xl82p wrote

Reminds me a bit of geocaching. In fact, in the early days of geocaching, there was a type of geocache that was called a "Moving cache". When you found it, you signed the log, then moved the cache to a new location and posted those coordinates on the website for the next people to look for it.

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EnochofPottsfield t1_j2xa5t2 wrote

Reminds me of that hidden Geotag Geocache trend (thanks u/dragonavicious!) from a decade or so ago. Hope this trend catches on similarly

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Buck_Thorn t1_j2xlf8n wrote

Yeah... moving caches! I just commented about that before I saw yours. Those were fun caches, but they haven't been allowed for many years now.

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Dry_Accountant5075 t1_j2xoav1 wrote

Why haven't they been allowed? I'm sorry I've only learned of geocaching recently because of a friend who does it. I would think this would be encouraged?

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Accessible-Privilege t1_j2xp34n wrote

Trespassing really. Plus dangerous placements.

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EnochofPottsfield t1_j2xsahx wrote

Oh man that's sad to hear! But also makes sense

It'd be fun to have events with the books in designated areas so this doesn't happen again

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omegagirl t1_j30i79v wrote

I have one of the hardest ones in Tiburon Ca if anyone wants to try to find…. #rocknroll

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Buck_Thorn t1_j2xrohp wrote

Because there was no reviewer able to verify that it was rehidden appropriately.

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ImCaffeinated_Chris t1_j2yibns wrote

We once forgot we had a travel bug geocache. It got lost in the kid's toy room. We found it and moved it to another cache 6 years later. The owner couldn't believe it. 😊

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Plethora_of_squids t1_j2zbk41 wrote

I kinda wish Pokemon go did more of what its sister game ingress did and make all the stops more of a thing to look at and do rather than just an icon you blindly spin. I get it's Pokemon and the Pokemon are the focus but like, it's also a niantic game. Hunting around for local points of interest is like a core gameplay mechanic.

In ingress (which is made by the same company) each individual point of interest has a little photo and a blurb and there's a game mechanic where people can make walking trails of points or even better, a fully fledged scavenger hunt where each point has a clue about where the next point is or each location has a quiz you gotta do about the thing in question in order to count as visited.

Geocaching was absolutely fun in the wilderness and more remote areas, but I felt like it fell apart a bit in big cities. You kinda look suspicious hunting around for weird objects and was limited by accessibility. When it's more virtual you can do stuff like "look up at the facade and translate it into English for your next clue" or "speedrun the salesman problem with your local churches GO!"

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westbee t1_j2z8bqp wrote

I found a couple by accident just kayaking down the river.

They were hidden well. I thought someone just left them behind by accident.

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fizwilly t1_j2xgybj wrote

This is such an inspiration! I work in my local library and I'm going to share this with our children's department. Pretty darn cool! Thanks for sharing!!

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PandaKickPunch t1_j2yyszg wrote

In our town the library does a story book walk where they have signs along a walking path with the pages from a kids book on them. My kids love going to the park that has the path because they get to read a story by racing to each page.

We also have a book bus that brings books to a different park for an hour each day during the summer. The library sets out baskets of books, signs kids up for library cards, and gives out simple literacy activity worksheets. They also bring some simple outdoor games like giant connect 4 and chalk. They do mornings some days and afternoons other days to reach different families/kids.

These might be other fun things your library can do in your community.

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fizwilly t1_j2zv958 wrote

gifgif that is awesome! We have many outreach programs as well. Both for our littles and adults.

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EgberetSouse t1_j2x4wm0 wrote

What? No 'concerned' parents?

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StoneTwin t1_j2xac8e wrote

Only when their child is exposed to a book they don't approve of.

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ngwoo t1_j2ybwsa wrote

Plenty of parents that don't approve of any education

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GeekCat t1_j2ygwp4 wrote

Well it helps that these are actually involved parents that care about their children.

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EgberetSouse t1_j31litp wrote

So long as they dont think their fears must be generally embraced. We are not an Air Stream Caravan society, traveling at the speed of the most sensitive.

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[deleted] t1_j2ymwm6 wrote

"It's ok if you wanna go search the sewers for books with your friend Pennywise. We aren't helicopter parents"

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wd_plantdaddy t1_j2xxnfh wrote

I’d be more concerned someone puts information in a book like a location to find another book in the neighborhood, but it’s actually a way for a predator to get them alone.

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EgberetSouse t1_j2xym1x wrote

I'm sure this is a result of the great string of geocaching tragedies. Never happened.

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Following_my_bliss t1_j2x9etr wrote

LOVE IT! I want to do this!

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wwwhistler t1_j2xb8ky wrote

Same here. I already plan to put a "Little Free Library" in the front yard but this sounds good in addition to that

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SeverusSnek2020 t1_j2xnq68 wrote

I may know what to do with all my kids old books. They are both teens now and don’t need child books.

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existdetective t1_j2yrjpf wrote

I mean, this could be fun & all but does it actually get at literacy needs? There are tons of children in need of books who don’t have access to them easily. You could donate books specifically in your community to an organization that stands the best chance of getting them into the hands of kids.

My kid’s elementary school would collect books annually (for all ages) then send boxes & boxes of them out to our very remote communities (Alaska) where there are no public libraries & schools have 25-50 total K-12 students (so even schools aren’t well stocked).

One community put all the incoming books into a “little free library” in the small heated & electrified building at their airstrip (calling it an airport would be wildly exaggerated). The building was open for once daily flights so there were always chances to get your books.

Another community put theirs at their laundromat building (no running water to homes so everyone went there to fill drinking water jugs, wash clothes, & take showers).

In a larger town, are there little free libraries where foster kids have visits with parents? At the unsheltered youth center? At the local DV shelter? What about at your local low-income health center or Head Start? Or even little free libraries at playgrounds & bus stops?

For awhile I would collect books from our transfer stations (eg thrown out with the trash) & sort & distribute them in this way. Don’t just dump a bunch of old textbooks on a nonprofit!

If you don’t know where to donate books, contact your local literacy council. They often have a lead on who in the community could benefit, often have their own free books, &/or may run the only remaining used book store in your town where kids’ books are 50 cents.

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AgreeableFeed9995 t1_j2yolal wrote

Man I wish we could do stuff like this in the United States. Unfortunately, as soon as Christian mothers would find out any single author of those books was gay, they’d burn down the entire town to ensure all the evil books were destroyed. You know, to protect the children.

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PathOfDawn t1_j2ztl34 wrote

I made my comment before I read this, but it was basically the same thing.

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InGenAche t1_j2xwwr7 wrote

Reminds me of my childhood, except it was porn, hidden in bushes. Still exciting and magical though.

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Brullon t1_j2y6ypl wrote

Years ago I found the "bookcrossing" website. It's sort of a grown up version of this. Gives a book a code and you leave it in a public place. The finder is supposed to input the info on the website to track how far the books will make it

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El_sone t1_j2ye01r wrote

Biggles! God that was a fun series to read as a kid.

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Dry_Accountant5075 t1_j2xo15o wrote

This is such a beautiful idea. Thank you for sharing this story. It's uplifting news for sure!

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Metagion t1_j2ya77z wrote

Here in my State the Library in Warwick (Kent Library, I believe) has stained glass in the windows, with hidden letters in each panel (the alphabet) for new students in school to find. It's really neat! (When I took stained glass classes, it was my teacher that did the panels on commission. She closed the classes and now works on commission only, with (I believe) churches getting a small discount.

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High-Time-Cymbaline t1_j2y2ubf wrote

It's great because it brings a degree of randomness to the reading experience, so they don't get to just stay in the same category of books. The joy of discovery also needs to be taught. Loving this!

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PathOfDawn t1_j2ztfpk wrote

Inb4 some idiotic parents come along and put a stop to this because it's satanic or something or other..

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rklover13 t1_j2y18p8 wrote

I want this for adults too.

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DearTrophallaxis t1_j2yby3g wrote

I love this idea! I think I’ll do it with a few of my kid’s old books she hasn’t read in a while. Hopefully there isn’t a panic amongst all the conservatives here that people are trying to groom kids through books though

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[deleted] t1_j2ye1ky wrote

[deleted]

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Aalnius t1_j2yjdrh wrote

ah the ever random forest/wood porn, nobody knows how the porn ends up in the forests and the woods but what we do know is that some teenage boy is going to find it.

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unstableunicorn t1_j2yzg8h wrote

Love this, I grew up there, well in a small village outside of Braidwood. Mum is still there and after I sent the article through says she has seen a few around the town. Such a great idea! My mum did run a local book library out of an old red telephone box for ages, those are great to and take the kids part them all the time to swap books and donate new ones

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ampjk t1_j30isqd wrote

Its geocaching but with books and less random stuff.

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BatteryAcid67 t1_j2y7930 wrote

What about all the weather? Do they put them in waterproof boxes?

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mfGLOVE t1_j2yd54y wrote

The video linked to the article shows them in bags and the instructions with the book say “please reuse this bag” when hiding them again.

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HumpaDaBear t1_j2ya32v wrote

I wish I had enough energy to start one of these in my neighborhood. There’s an elementary school a few blocks away.

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nereaders t1_j2zrhpe wrote

What a great idea! Having said, and not wanting to be a Debbie Downer, I really hope they’re not leaving Biggles books as part of the project - IIRC, there are a couple of racial slurs that pop up regularly.

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BradyStoneheart t1_j2xraem wrote

Wait till the proud boys hear about this

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Pope---of---Hope t1_j2y3pq5 wrote

This was my first thought. Those loudmouth conservatives will go apeshit and put a stop to this if they ever find a book that is even remotely "woke".

I hate that the media (and living in Florida) have done this to me. I've since checked out of that nonstop political shit show, but the effects linger...they fester.

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