In May, after years of going to a nearby city to get new books to read and to drop off books I read, carrying them by hand, in backpacks and wagons by bus, before I had a car, I decided to put together a little free library for my community.
It has been great to watch it take off, from the first 2 bags of books I picked up from people to get it started, to shelves bursting with books, so that I have two rows of books per shelf. It has been fun to leave my house and see people gathered around the bookshelves perusing what is there. I've enjoyed sorting out and organizing the books by genre, and moving them around to bring attention to books people might have missed before. I feel like a real librarian setting up book displays and curating the collections.
The books have mostly been English books, even though that isn't the local language, and I wanted to have more of a range, so it would be for the broader community locally, and not just something for the American ex-pats. And finally it happened. With one large donation, we started getting people who read the local language to pick up books and drop some off, and we reached the community at large.
But it was outside. And not weather proofed.
I was trying to brainstorm the best way to keep it safe from rain. Rain starts usually no later than mid October, but often as early as September, and then on and off until March or April, and while it was fine as it was from when I started it, I knew it might rain soon and needed to be prepared.
But how exactly?
I got some thick plastic see through tablecloth to attach to the top with the ability to roll and unroll it to protect it from the rain and then some velcro to attach it to the sides at the bottom to stop it from blowing off in the wind. But some people pointed out that if I left it on the ground, the bottom could get soaked by water that is there, which would ruin the bookshelf, especially since it was made of particleboard. I had the idea to lift the bookshelf off the ground and mount it it to the wall it was leaning against, but told that it wouldn't work from a physics perspective since it was built to distribute the weight of the books downwards. People suggested I raise it from the ground on cinderblocks or things like that.
And then it rained yesterday morning.
And I hadn't done anything yet to protect it from the rain.
Fortunately, it wasn't heavy at all and the books didn't get affected. But it gave me the kick in the behind to get it taken care of already.
There is a woman on my town council that is in charge certain community initiatives, and when I first started this library, I asked her if I could set it up in one of the bus stops, as many places have them in the nearby city and other towns in my area, and she said to start it near my house and see how much interest there is in it, how well it takes off, etc... and I think she also wanted to know that it would reach further than just my community of American expats. Since it has, I contacted her yesterday morning and updated her about the success, and asked her if we could move it to a bus stop now, and she said we could, as long as I make sure that it stays neat and organized, but if it becomes problematic I'd have to move it out.
I decided to bring it to the bus stop closest to my house, which is also the one that is one of the most frequented bus stops in my town, as it is the main drop off place for buses coming back from the city, so it will get a lot of traffic there.
Now that I had her permission, I made plans to move it over once I got back from running errands in the city. The bus stop wouldn't entirely protect it from the elements, and I'd still have to lift it off the ground, but it would stop rain from getting onto and into it.
And then my friend posted in a local giveaway Whatsapp group that she had a modular plastic shelving unit to give away. Not in perfect condition, kids had scribbled on the sides, and it was missing a shelf, but it was waterproof. The library was so popular that I had to double the books on the shelves, so dividing it into two different bookshelves now that I had two bookshelves was perfect.
Once I brought the bookshelves to the bus stop I realized that only one of them would be able to fit into the bus stop without blocking things. But I had a waterproof bookshelf now. So I decided to put the current wooden one inside and the plastic one leaning against the bus stop outside. I still need to get cinder blocks, but that can wait a bit. (There are no books on the bottom shelves.)
I set up the books so that the outside bookshelf had books in the local language, books in a language that a lot of other expats in my community speak, and kids and young adult books.
Inside, we have English books divided by category, mystery/thriller, sci fi/fantasy, historical fiction, romance, plain old fiction (chick lit, some of it). and non fiction.
I couldn't find the velcro I bought to use, but in the meantime attached the plastic to the top of the bookshelf, with some draping behind to anchor it. I rolled it up so that it doesn't block the books when it isn't raining, and hopefully I'll add velcro to anchor it to the sides in the wind today or tomorrow.
I have a sign hanging up with the rules.
- Take a book. Place a book. No limit. Whichever you like. No need to return.
- This is NOT your trash can. Please only put books in good condition - not ripped or missing pages. If you wouldn’t want to read from a book in such a condition, it doesn’t belong here.
- Do not place religious texts here. This isn't the place for it and you'll only be making more work for us to need to properly and respectfully dispose of the books.
- Do not place school books or textbooks.
- Please keep it orderly.