💾 Archived View for zaibatsu.circumlunar.space › ~solderpunk › phlog › little-library-in-a-fridge.tx… captured on 2022-07-16 at 15:55:13.
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Little library in a fridge -------------------------- I'm in Australia for a week, for a conference (starting tomorrow). Today was the only complete free day I had to myself, so together with a coworker who's here with me I went for a bit of a wander and explore. We walked most of the way to the centre of the city from the suburban AirBnb where we're staying along a really nice combined pedestrian-bike path which runs mostly through parkland. At one point I spotted a little further ahead what looked like a small fridge or freezer, sitting in the grass just a few metres to the side of the path. What a shame, I thought, and how very strange, that somebody would abandon a busted old fridge in the middle of a park! As we passed it, to my surprise and delight I noticed that on the front of the fridge was written, in large, neat letters in permanent black marker: NATIONAL (LITTLE) LIBRARY Cracking the door it was, indeed, full of books! Not perfectly protected from the rain (maybe worn out door seals were the reason the fridge was decomissioned), but mostly readable. In the same marker, the temperature adjusting knob had been labelled "nerd levels"! This, it turned out, was actually the first of three items in a really charming little installation. Nearby to the fridge library was a small table, reminiscent of an old-fashioned school desk, with matching chair, painted red and labelled WRITING STATION. Atop the desk was an old biscuit tin with a pair of ballpoints inside (much better protected from the rain!), and in the drawer in a plastic sleeve were some sheets of paper, as well as a laminated printout of writing prompts. Finally, an old mailbox, also painted red, had been turned into a "love box", where people could leave cards with messages of love for random people to read. Sadly, this was by far the worst rain-hit part of the whole thing. Realistically, this is probably the kind of thing which sounds just lovely on paper (no pun intended) but doesn't actually see an awful lot of really meaningful use. Nevertheless, it really warmed my heart and put me in a good mood for the rest of the day. What impressed me the most, by far, was that the whole thing had neither been carted off by the council (maybe some kind of official blessing was obtained?) nor (and this is by far the bigger shock) vandalised in any way that I could see. I've seen small free libraries before in other parts of the world, but never one housed in something as creative as a fridge, and I'd never seen anything like the writing station before. I think it's a pretty neat idea. If there's anything like any of this close by to you, I'd love to hear about it!