Little Free Library #8424 is Back in Business

Late this morning we’ve finished building and installing a brand new Little Free Library on Harding Avenue between New York Dr. and Berendo St. in beautiful Northeast Altadena, CA!

Last year, we decommissioned our trusty old library after more than four years of service because one of the doors fell off and it need more significant repairs than we were able to provide. Now, just in time for our fifth anniversary next week on July 28th, we’ve replaced the library with a beautiful new model that should last for the next several years.

A medium shot of the library and the surrounding gardens

Everyone is welcome to come and enjoy the books. Please take the appropriate precautions with physical distancing (one patron at a time please), and follow recommended guidelines for hand-washing.

Currently there are a variety of books: fiction to non-fiction, children’s board books to adult fare; classics to contemporary; and paperbacks to hardcovers. Many are either new or generally very lightly used. Come today to see what we’ve got that may be of interest you. There are even some free erasers for little readers.

And remember our general guidelines: Take a book. Leave a book.

The library has internal lights now for late night browsing! 💡📚💡

The library has internal lights now for late night browsing 💡📚💡

Instagram filter used: Clarendon

Photo taken at: Little Free Library #8424

A kind anonymous donor must have either come across our wish list or visits often at night. Someone dropped off a Philips LED Battery Operated Dewdrop Light package to the library in the last couple of days. As a result, with a few AA-batteries, we’ve now got a 6 hour timer with night lighting (for the top portion of the library only) for lighting the library between 7pm and 1am for the late night book owls in Adams Hill. No more trying to balance your cell phone light while trying to browse books here!

We’ll try to slowly adjust the timer to go on earlier as the sun sets earlier in the Winter, though that means it’ll go off a bit earlier in the late night hours as well.

Thanks again mystery donor!

Celebrating fREADom: Happy 4th of July!

In honor of the Declaration of Independence, what better way to celebrate than by reading?!

In fact, we’re reminded that Benjamin Franklin, the only Founding Father who is a signatory of all four of the major documents of the founding of the United States: the Declaration of Independence, the Treaty of Alliance with France, the Treaty of Paris and the United States Constitution, was also the inventor of the first subscription lending library!

While most libraries in America are closed today for the holiday, we wear it as a badge of honor and fREADom to be open all day for your reading pleasure.

For those who’d like to learn more about our hero Benjamin Franklin, we’re putting a brand new first edition of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Franklin into the library today.

 

 

Today’s Books: April 20, 2016

We’ve recently had several books come back into stock that have been out for a while, so if you haven’t checked out our bookshelves for a while, now is a good time to see what we’ve got.

We’ve also been stockpiling donations for a few weeks and are about to remove everything currently in the library and replace it with all new stock! So here’s the last(?) call for the great stuff we’ve currently got…

If you’ve got something you’d like to donate for the upcoming restock, please feel free to leave it inside the library this week.

Administrative Note

In conversing with passerby recently, we’ve realized that some people don’t realize that there is a top and a bottom to our library! Yes, indeed, there’s an obvious glass door on the top that opens down, but there’s also a door below it (with the white Little Free Library sign on it) that opens up to the left. Typically we keep some current magazines, children’s books, and young adult selections as well as some additional adult pulp fiction in that section.

Top

LFL Top 4-20-16

Bottom

LFL Bottom 4-20-16

 

GoodReads Account Update

I initially started out this blog using my personal GoodReads account to track LFL #8424’s incoming and outgoing books, but it’s really started to clog up my personal account more than I ever expected. So today, I’ve created a separate GoodReads account to track the library’s books.

Having a separate account also allows everyone to directly follow/friend the library to get updates as they happen rather than relying on following my personal account or being forced to periodically check the individual incoming/outgoing bookshelves. If you’ve bookmarked the shelves, be sure to update them.

Follow us on GoodReads: Little Free Library #8424

A Whole New Shelf

Since we’ve opened, it’s been a bit difficult to see and sort through all of the books in our library. For a while we’ve had a temporary pseudo-shelf, but we’ve upgraded.

To help make things a bit more efficient and easier to see, we’ve added a small internal shelf. Now the upper part of the library, which usually has two rows of books, raises the second row up a bit. Hopefully it’s easier to see what’s back there without having to dig half the library out to find your next favorite read. It also allows us to fit in a few more books.

We’ve Cleared 100 Books in Our First Month!

Since our official (soft) opening on July 28th, we’ve had more than 100 books in or through our library!

Though we haven’t logged in every single book in the library — some of them come and go pretty fast — the ones we have tagged and shelved now come out to over 100.

Thanks again to all of our friends and neighbors for helping to make Little Free Library #8424 such a success!

My favorite read so far was Jared Diamond’s Collapse.  Which book has been your favorite from our library so far?

The Hottest Library in California

Today may be the first day we’ve had no activity in the library since we opened. We hope everyone is staying cool in the high heat.
Drink plenty of fluids. The shade should envelope the library in about 30 minutes, and we’ll be open all night for your reading pleasure.

Little Free Library #8424 (Adams Hill Branch) Grand Opening

About two years ago while surfing online I came across the concept of the Little Free Library and  instantly fell in love.  It turned out I had been driving by one on my commute regularly and had always wondered what it was and what was going on.  I immediately had big dreams for building my own.  I surfed their website for ideas and building plans.  I registered for my placard. I received my placard. I drew up elaborate plans for building my own.  I debated buying new parts versus recycling or upcycling parts. [Trigger warning for bibliophiles: addictive material to follow] I spent hours surfing photos of Little Free Libraries on their Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, and Flickr pages.  This is when Little Free Library Envy set in… for almost two years.

I’ve finally broken the spell! Supplies have been purchased. Work has commenced.  Drilling and mounting have been completed.

The first branch of the Adams Hill Little Free Libraries is now open!

 

Little Free Library #8424 Grand Opening

You’re cordially invited to the grand opening of the first Little Free Library in Adams Hill (Charter #8424).

Date: Sunday, August 9th, 2015
Time: 4pm – 5pm
Location: 1411 Dartmouth Drive, Glendale

Lemonade and cookies will be served.

Come chat with your neighbors, say hello, and check out the library.  If you’re so motivated, feel free to bring a book (or two) to help stock the library.

More information about the Adams Hill “branch” can be found at our library’s page Little Free Library #8424, but the scant basics are below:

  • The books in our library are always free and never for sale.
  • Feel free to take a book.
  • If you have a book you’d like to share, please feel free to donate it.
  • When you’re done with your book: return it, pass it along to a friend, or release it back into the wild.
  • You don’t need to “check the book out” or “check it in”, but we do encourage you to sign our guest book and participate via Book Crossing.

Little Free Library #8424 is Open

What is a Little Free Library?

It’s a “take a book, return a book” gathering place where neighbors share their favorite literature and stories. In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share. You can, too!

If you want to learn more about the movement or host your own Little Free Library, please visit their website.

Location

Little Free Library Charter #8424 is located at 1411 Dartmouth Drive, Glendale, CA 91205. It is located at the dog-leg on Dartmouth on the west side of the street. It is just west of S. Adams Street, roughly at the top of the hill.

A library with a view of the mountains

A library with a view of the mountains

Our Library Philosophy

Though Chris built and hosts the library, he’s simply a steward or caretaker, of the branch. The library is free and open for the use of our friends and neighbors in Adams Hill and the surrounding neighborhoods. If you’ve stopped to check things out, you’re automatically an associate librarian. It is appreciated if everyone helps to care for and maintain the library.

General Suggestions

  • The books in our library are always free and never for sale.
  • Feel free to take a book.
  • If you have a book you’d like to share, please feel free to donate it.
  • When you’re done with your book: return it, pass it along to a friend, or release it back into the wild.
  • You don’t need to “check the book out” or “check it in”, but we do encourage you to sign our guest book and participate via Book Crossing [see below].

Arrangement of Books

Since there isn’t a full time librarian and only so much space, there isn’t (usually) a set order to the arrangement of our books. Since it’s been a long trip up the hill, feel free to stop for a minute to cool off, consider yourself an associate librarian, and rearrange them to suit your whimsy – it is your library after all. We only ask that you try to keep any children’s books on the lower shelf for short legs and arms to be able to reach, and that your arrangement ensures all the books fit into the library just in case it rains.

Possible suggestions for arrangements might include:

  • by size
  • by color
  • by the order in which you’ve read them
  • by author’s first name
  • by publication date
  • by publisher or imprint
  • by topic in reverse alphabetic order
  • by best to worst (in your opinion or someone else’s)
  • by those you’ve read and those you haven’t

The options are infinite, so be creative.

Book Crossing

All of our books in the Adams Hill Branch are “traveling” books. We try to register all of them on Book Crossing. This is a free web service for watching the journey of individual books as they meander about the world. If you’d like to, you can enter the BCID number inside the front of the book to see where it’s been and even where it goes after you’ve read it. You can also enter any data, thoughts, reviews, etc. for the book on your own, as well as create a note about where you re-released it. (Note that we don’t expect all of our books to necessarily come back to our branch, but we do ask that you pass them along when you’re done with them.)

Pending people updating the location of books removed, check availability at our Book Crossing Zone.

Donating Books

We gladly accept your donated books.

If you have more books than the little library will fit, please don’t simply dump them! You can leave them in a covered box preferably on our stairs/landing – this will keep our sprinklers and elements from ruining them or you can contact me through Nextdoor.com. If the library has more books than will fit, we’ll occasionally rotate them to help improve the diversity of the available collection over time.

If you’d like to, please write the titles of your donations into our guest book as this will help us to register them on Book Crossing. (You’re welcome to register them on book crossing yourself prior to donation as well.)

Guest Book

Our library has guest book and a pen.  Feel free to write down any thoughts, comments, or suggestions you might have about the library and leave them in the library for the associate librarians who happen by. Or maybe you were waxing poetic when you stopped by and wanted to leave a short poem or haiku about our library? Really liked a book? Feel free to leave a short review for the next potential reader. Donating a book: feel free to include the title and your name so others can thank you later.

Wish List

Our wish list has two functions:

  1. Write down any books you’d love to see come to our library so you can borrow them in the future.
  2. Read the list to see if you have any of the books you might donate so that others can enjoy them.

Fliers

We’re happy to host fliers/notices only for local community events.  The library is constructed of metal, so use a magnet (no tape, staples, glue, or permanent adhesives please) to attach your notice to the library. We ask that any fliers have a specific event date/time so that they may be easily removed once they’re over.  We also recommend posting on the community site Nextdoor. If you’re visiting from outside Adams Hill, try this link for a $25 Amazon.com gift card.

Please don’t leave any promotional/advertising items, business cards, or proselytizing material here as they will be removed. There are more effective places you can place these items.

Thanks for Visiting!