Make It So: More Little Free Libraries Ideas

(This column is posted at www.StevenSavage.com and Steve’s Tumblr.  Find out more at my newsletter.)

I’ve been writing about Little Free Libraries on and off for awhile. Lately I got some ideas for how we could do some different geeky things with them. So here are suggestions if you run one, want to run one, or have friends who do or may.

Let’s think about ways you can theme, shake up, or vary Little Free Libraries.

Themed Libraries: What if you did a library that was all career advice, or all science fiction? You could also have a multi-shelf library with themed shelves.

Indie Libraries: If you want to be more specific – and probably make some purchases – have your little free library promote indie authors. You could even ask for donations as well – plus network locally.

Game Libraries: Though they’re expensive, game manuals and RPG supplements often make their way to discount and used bookstores, or people get tired of certain games. Why not a game library? This also could be good at a game store.

Comic/manga Libraries: If you’re like me, you probably have a few leftover manga, you can find tons of them at used book stores, and I’m sure you have friends with series they’re done with. Let’s get outside of text-only books and into graphic stories!

Rotating Libraries: What if you had a monthly themed library? Every month, switch out the books in the library with others, each time based on a different theme. Maybe you have six themes, and rotate them one month at a time, keeping the books appropriate to the theme in storage.

Book Club Libraries: If you run a book club, changes are you’ve got people with leftover books. So make your own Little Free Library for the club – with flyers for your club. However you may need to avoid having twenty copies of the same book . . .

Have any other ideas? Let me know!

Steven Savage

Activities For The Civic Geek: Little Free Libraries

Start a Little Free Library at your club, local comic shop, game store, or elsewhere.

You love books and want to get them out there and into people’s hands. Great comics, amazing job advice, helpful manuals on programming – whatever you love, you want it out there. You also know that reading is best when shared, as part of a group, and it can change people’s lives.

Consider making a Little Free Library at your geeky establishment of choice. Little Free Libraries are small containers, some quite artistically designed, where people play by the take-a-book-leave-a-book rule. Little Free Libraries encourage craftsmanship (to make), socialization (giving people a place to gather and interact), and of course reading because they involve books.

A few suggestions:

  • Have a portable Little Free Library that travels from convention to convention.
  • Have a themed Little Free Library at a comic store, game store, or so on that focuses on given product.
  • Have a themed Little Free Library for a book club dedicated to fantasy, SF, etc.

Resources:

Respectfully,

– Steven Savage
http://www.informotron.com/
http://www.seventhsanctum.com/

Geek Catalog Update 10/5/2014

The latest updates to the Geek Catalog are here!  Heavy on coding this time since that’s where my research led me.

As always, check out the full list for the Geek Focus and Community Focus Listings.

 

Comics and Cartoons

  • History
    • Cartoon Art Museum – A museum for all forms of cartoon art, performing preservation, dispays, events, and more. Established in 1984, it has a permanent home in San Francisco.

Computing

  • Education
    • Black Girls CODE – Introduces girls from underrepresented communities to coding. Focuses on community outreach, education, and technology awareness
    • Computer Clubhouse – Sponsored by Intel, this organization uses technology and technology training to help people from underserved communities. Focuses on developing a network of “Clubhouses”
    • ScriptEd – ScriptEd provides coding skills and professional experiences to under-resourced youth, focusing on developing careers.
    • Teens Exploring Tech – Focusing on men of color from low-income communities, Teens Exploring Tech teaches coding, life, and community skills.
    • Yes We Code – #YesWeCode is an outreach and training program with the goal of training 100,000 low-opportunity young people to be coders

STEM

  • Ocean Preservation
    • Marine Conservation Institute – An organized, sustainability-oriented institute focused on protecting marine ecosystems. Heavily driven by partnerships, alliance, and outreach.

Writing

  • Books
    • Little Free Library – An organization promoting building local, personal “little free libraries” to promote reading and community.

– Steven Savage

Steven Savage is a Geek 2.0 writer, speaker, blogger, and job coach.  He blogs on careers at http://www.musehack.com/, publishes books on career and culture at http://www.informotron.com/, and does a site of creative tools at http://www.seventhsanctum.com/. He can be reached at https://www.stevensavage.com/.