Friday, August 31, 2018

The Weirdest Libraries Around the World

I love that libraries come in all shapes and sizes! I discovered an article on Electric Lit's website titled, The Weirdest Libraries Around the World by Brianne Alphonso. In the article, Brianne Alphonso wrote the following:
Working in a small community library involves a lot of smearing disinfectant on glitter-speckled toys in the children’s section, but you meet a bunch of people too. When not disinfecting, I used to help visitors track down texts, locate online resources, and sign up for mailing lists. There was always someone looking for a recommendation or another person eager to give one. Even kids got hyped up pointing out their favorite princesses or dragons on the pages of picture books. The best part of libraries are the people, and seeing how access to books and comfy seating can make them open up to one another made the toy wiping worth it. 
Bookstores are great, especially the independent bookstores fighting the good fight against their online counterpart, but they aren’t always the most viable option for book lovers on a budget. What are you supposed to do when four books carry your total over $100? It’s hard to read when your electricity gets cut off for an overdue bill. That’s why I can’t recommend enough getting a card for your local library, and supporting library systems wherever you go. 
To promote easy access to literature, here are a handful of fantastically unconventional book borrowing systems from around the world. Some grow from their surrounding communities. Others rely on trade-ins, donations, or customers, but each one has found its own unconventional approach to free reading.
I've seen a few pictures of these unique libraries in pictures online before... Like the library vending machines, the war tank, little free libraries, and a few of the others mentioned in the above article. 

Which libraries did you find the most intriguing mentioned in the article above?

4 comments:

  1. My favorite was the Abbey library, but I also liked the beach libraries and the vending libraries (vending machine style) around the world.

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    1. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!!

      I loved the beach library as well. My husband and I lived near the beach for 16 years and I miss reading at the beach during the warmer months of the year. A beach library would have been perfect near where we lived!

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    2. Nice memories. I bet that beach library would have been pretty handy. ;-)

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    3. Yes, it would have been very handy indeed!

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