This time the report is from Pauline in the Fairmount Park area:
I was just outside watering our garden when I noticed that our LFL was completely cleaned out. They left the pencils and bookmarks; I guess these items weren’t good enough! I am heartbroken to think someone would do this. I have read similar stories on the blog. What is wrong with people?!
Sorry to hear this also happened to you, Pauline. Stop by the shop sometime and we’ll get you a box or two of quality books on the house.
Pegasus is the best! Thanks, Eric, for being an amazing community partner.
Has anyone found a reason for these thefts? Have any of the books been found dumped? Have any shown up on the internet for sale?
@T: What makes you think that, or are you just trolling? My guess is punk vandals or someone trying to resell. I agree with another poster – put up some game cams and perhaps the mystery will be solved.
What? Why would conservatives steal books? That’s absurd! I would guess it’s kids, doing kid stuff….
Because conservatives ban books and they burn books and they restrict libraries? It tracks if you’ve been paying attention to the censorship happening in this country.
@ABeech: That might explain why “Mein Kampf” and “Bring the War Home” were the only two books left in my local LFL. /sarc
That’s your stance on the issue? Are you one of the kids who takes all of the candy from the Halloween candy bowls at the “not here” houses?
“Arenāt these free?” Yes, which for it’s intended purpose is an honor system that people are supposed to be respectful and give back in kind. However, we live in an urban area full of people who take advantage of other people and feel they’re entitled to do whatever they want and never have consequences to their actions. I just expect it to be a new TickTock type challenge and happen more often, like Hyundai theft.
Car driver, we removed our LFL after multiple episodes of total loss and other vandalism. Our books were stamped āfree, not for saleā. A neighbor found the last of them on the next street, on the ground in the rain. It was a sad decision to take it down.
I don’t think you’re going to find the books for sale. I think it’s likely the actions of they type who celebrates their lizard-brain, who might be new to the area and doesn’t like the values around here…
Before another debate starts about “well, they’re free, it’s not theft”, it IS theft. LFL etiquette is, you take a book (or two). You leave books when you can. You return the books you borrowed, if you like. When someone experiences a “cleanout”, as we call it in the LFL world, 99% of the time it means you have a reseller in the area. They don’t just take the “nice” books, they take EVERYTHING, and sort it out later. And they usually wait until dark, because they know what they’re doing.There are steps you can take to *maybe* slow this down, especially the folks in the affected areas. Black out barcodes, mark up the page edges with “NOT FOR RESALE”. It sucks, but it makes them less desirable. Securing the libraries is kind of a last resort, but if this keeps happening, it’s something to think about. Even just in the dark hours. Bringing everything in at night, or using a small padlock, or a bike cable or thin chain locked around. Again, this will really stink, but as most of us are not made of money, we can’t afford to supply someone else’s income.If anyone, be it the LFL owner or a neighbor, can temporarily aim a camera at the libraries, we might be able to use the hive mind to figure out who this is. (And Pegasus, you folks are AWESOME. I’m so glad we have you!!!)
We have had this problem in Chicago at some of our LFL and senior centers where we followed a guy who took our most desirable books, nearly new, and sold them to a local bookstore. This removes the generosity of the donors. So mark the edges as not for sale and talk to bookshops. We tried to speak to bookstore owners not to buy books from this person but were ignored. We want to put books for free in the hands of readers.
Perhaps the people raking them are ones struggling to make ends meet. And again, if you don’t want it to be truly free, don’t host one. And kudos to Pegasus for offering to replenish these. If you post your cross streets, I will bring some books to restock as well.
Obviously you have never been poor and had to struggle to pay your bills.
Even the food banks and free clothing charities have quantity limits. You canāt clear out the whole food bank of a truck full of food and go resell it just because itās āfreeā and you are struggling – other people are also struggling and they are being stolen from too when someone takes more than they will personally use. Right? YOU are the one who sounds out of touch and is virtue signaling.
KT…being poor is no excuse to steal! That attitude is why we have problems not getting solved!
The books aren’t free, the library service that LFL provides is free. I don’t think it’s a difficult concept to understand unless one wants to abuse the service.
Maybe the people taking the books actually like to read and donāt know how these work? You never know lol
Perhaps the best response is indeed to simply replace the books. Thieves are not into books, they are vandals, maybe just doing it because they are noticing it bothers people. If the books are quietly replaced, they won’t get the continued satisfaction of spreading unhappiness. It is just a small percentage of evildoers.
Thanks to all who host these sites and to Pegasus and other contributors willing to replace.
Perhaps the best response is indeed to simply replace the books. Thieves are not into books, they are vandals, maybe just doing it because they are noticing it bothers people. If the books are quietly replaced, they won’t get the continued satisfaction of spreading unhappiness. It is just a small percentage of evildoers.Thanks to all who host these sites and to Pegasus and other contributors willing to replace.
In the grand scheme of things, either a misunderstanding , or someone who just doesn’t “get” the positive energy of community and gets a thrill out of destroying things that are easy targets. What I DO know is that the LFLs have been such a blessing to me: during COVID, while traveling and even when I was heartbroken. So let’s not rush to “throw the baby out with the bath water..” Focus instead on all the silent, intrepid readers who think LFLs are one of the best things EVER.
*sigh* This is why we can’t have nice things.Thanks to Pegasus books for stepping up!
The one near my home in Highland Park has been emptied a few times in the last year. At first I thought someone was just doing a community service by purging the lingering collection of self-help books.
Arenāt the books for taking? Maybe someone is creating a library for students, or giving books to people that need books. I know teachers that go for walks to collect books for their classroom libraries. What your address? I am sure I have books I can fill your library with. I usually give at least a book a month to the one near my house and I hardly ever take a book out. I really donāt see why this is a big deal.
I know someone who regularly takes a pretty generous helping of LFL books for a books for prisoners program, which mails books to people locked up. She doesn’t clean out libraries completely, but does take a lot. Seems reasonable (and in the spirit of the LFL) to me.
If the books aren’t free, maybe change the name to “Community Lending Library” or “Neighborhood Lending Library”.
Install cameras and broadcast on social media who is doing this. Selling used books is not exactly a lucrative hustle for those struggling financially – donāt blame the poor.
They are resellers. All of my graphic novels and popular youth books get taken. I caught one and I think I chased them away but I know there are others. Thereās really nothing I can do except put signs up to tell them not to take them.
For what it’s worth, the plaque states ‘take one, share one.’ I’m the steward of 5 Little Free Libraries in Port Jervis NY. I purchase used children’s books from the LFL website because they go out, don’t come back, even when people told me about all the children’s books that they had at home. Only one of them is regularly cleaned out, meaning every single book. It has more adult books. The closest used book store issues store credit. The Friends accept book donations. We have no idea who is doing it because there’s no camera.
Iāve never understood the appeal of these. If people want a book, canāt they just go to the SPL or a bookstore? To me, these look like places where people dump off books that Goodwill wonāt even take.
The number of apologists of this behavior are astounding and disappointing. Every time someone abuses a system like this and forces others to make the difficult decision to stop providing it, the world gets a little worse. Sorry this happened to you Pauline.
A few years ago my son and I took our dog for a walk to a local park/walking trail. They had a take one, leave one library. Someone took all the books and ripped them up and scattered them all over the ground and path. It was heartbreaking to see.
I’m on the Town Library Board and we put up 4 “Little Libraries By the Sea” at local beaches every Summer. I also work at a public library and we have what we call “beach reads” that don’t need to be checked out/no barcode which are paperbacks we stamp and hopefully people won’t take our hardcover books to the beach. Our books are donated by the 5 local village libraries, which are typically donated by generous patrons. We put neon yellow/green stickers on the approved literature and then they go out to the beaches. We give away over 3,000 books every Summer. I’ve been doing this since we started it and it’s been many years now. I’ve seen it all. People leaving boxes of books at the base of the posts, putting their own items in as a sort-of trade, taking many books at once/cleaning out the LL (probably too sell), leaving inappropriate materials inside (50 shades type novels aka bodice rippers lol, horror movies, bloody action movies, basically adult fiction and mysteries are ok, but nothing too sexy or scary because it’s the beach and we don’t want to traumatize anyone…), leaving old, moldy, smelly materials inside, etc. Those are just the scenarios I can recall, but nothing surprises me anymore. We started putting the neon stickers on the items to try and deter unsolicited donations and to hopefully keep booksellers from cleaning us out. What happens to the books after they leave our care is not our concern, just like with the book sales at the library I work at. I did ask in my early days and they told us to keep them stocked and that’s it there was nothing else we could do about it. Try putting on stickers, or use a unique stamp in the front or back cover. Occasionally I’ll see our books with the neon stickers and the “beach reads” paperbacks at local thrift stores and even some yard sales and estate sales. So you never really know who takes them or why. Maybe it was someone who just likes to read a lot and can’t afford to buy books and may owe money to the library like they or someone they know racked up a ton of fines. Maybe it’s those meddling kids. Maybe it’s a bookseller. Does it really matter? Regardless they are finding homes eventually. And if it’s restocking that’s an issue, I find books to refill our supply everywhere. Free bins at thrift stores and at libraries, friends and family who are downsizing their own collections, estate and yard sales that have finished and are giving books away so they don’t wind up at the transfer station.
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