Bookplates, boomerangs, and magazines – Oh My!

Bookplates

Our custom book plates arrived today!

Now it’s much easier to register books on Book Crossing and give them their own unique BCID’s. We’ve added them to the 12 books currently in our collection as well as the many books we’re getting ready for our Grand Opening this coming Sunday.

Patrons can enter the BCID numbers from the bookplates to see where the book has been before them.  They can also enter in their ratings, reviews, and comments before re-releasing them back to our library or passing them along to other Little Free Libraries or friends.

Little Free Library #8424 Bookplate

Little Free Library #8424 Bookplate

Our First Boomerang

Our very first outside donation, has “boomeranged” back to us. While we don’t always necessarily expect our books to come back to our branch, it’s great to know that they’re being read and appreciated instead of sitting on our shelves just looking pretty. The accompanying note in our guest book on the return was:

“Thank you so much for the great books. They are really appreciated.”

Magazines

We’d also like to note that one of our neighbors up the hill donated a handful of magazines including Time, Sports Illustrated, and Rolling Stone among many others. While we would typically discourage the donation of magazines, these are all popular issues that are current within the last few weeks.

Bookshelf Updated

Our current offerings have been updated on our Good Reads bookshelf.

Excitement and The McAllistar Family

So excited to see a FLL in the neighborhood.
Thank you! Will visit often ❤

8/6/15: The McAllistar Family is so happy to have a little library on our street. Thank you so much for building it!

8-6-15

Foreign Influence, The Interestings, & Department of Speculation

Courtesy of two new donors we’ve just gotten the following in stock:

Today’s New Books: Fiction and a Thriller

We must have a library fairy godmother! Yet again, in the late afternoon yesterday, we got two more donations:

Our bookshelves are slowly filling up!

Reminder: Our Grand Opening is coming this weekend.

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.

New Non-Fiction Arrived This Morning

Someone apparently knows my taste in non-fiction. An anonymous donor has brought us copies of:

 

Our First Native BookCrossing

Yesterday, we had someone donate our first natively registered Book Crossing release: Dean Koontz’s Life Expectancy. Thanks loveschocolate for visiting our library and making the donation!

First Entry in Our Guestbook

“We love Book Crossing and Little Free Libraries, so thanks for doing this! We’ll be back! Have a happy day!”

-D&L

Big Changes over the Weekend

I still have yet to do any kind of publicity for my newly launched Little Free Library, but while I was away at the beach for the weekend, there were some substantive changes.

Over the weekend we’ve loaned out

And we’ve gotten three new donations overnight

The updated list of our current stock can be found on our GoodReads shelf.

Guest Book

We’ve added a guest book for our visitors. You’ll find a red composition book (and pen) inside our library where you can leave your thoughts and comments. Kindly leave the guest book in the library – it’s the one book we have that doesn’t circulate!

In some part the guest book is meant to help catalog the progress of our library. Below are some suggestions for what you might write into our guest book when you visit:

  • Patrons/Associate Librarians are encouraged to (optionally) write in the books they donate or check out.
  • Say hello to your fellow neighbors! You can simply write down the day and time of your visit along with a note for future visitors.
  • Bringing back a book? Feel free to write in a short review of the book you’re returning so others will know what they’re getting into. (If you give it a number of stars, be sure to indicate out of how many possible, so we know your scale.)
  • Liked a book you borrowed? Flip back into the guest book to see who made the donation and write in a thank you to the donor.
  • Have a book you’ve been longing for? Write it in and maybe a fellow neighbor has a copy they can donate on a future visit.
  • Visiting our branch from far away? Be sure to write down your hometown and country  so we know how far away our books travel.
Little Free Library Guest Book

Little Free Library Guest Book

Our First Outside Donation: The Last Original Wife

Sometime overnight, we received our first official outside book donation! (We’ve only been open for just a few days, and have done absolutely no publicity.) Come check out our most recent title:

The Last Original Wife: A Novel by Dorothea Benton Frank

The Last Original Wife