#not disputing the utility of free book drop boxes just saying why make unsubstantiated claims about their efficacy

[thepoisonroom]

What's a little free library? And what's wrong with them lol

these guys. they're basically book drop boxes where anyone can leave or take stuff!

there's nothing inherently wrong with them but proponents sometimes make a lot of big claims about their effects on literacy and book access that aren't substantiated by evidence! they mostly occur in affluent neighborhoods rather than underresourced ones and don't really address structural causes of low literacy rates and/or the exclusion of functionally illiterate people from public life and resources. plus even in the imagined use case of, say, neighborhood members taking free books to improve their reading skills, it's not like they're generally well-supplied or -curated collections of books. like there's utility in having free book drop boxes for people to pass stuff on, i'm just a smidge skeptical about the positive impact of my neighbor's 500 chicken soup for the soul books interspersed with evangelical pamphlets. my thought with them is that they're often more of a vanity project that lets people pat themselves on the back without taking any substantive action to affect positive change in their communities.

also, like, cases of LFLs being policed to prevent "theft" (see earlier rb) raise a lot of questions about who LFL builders consider to be the proper users of purported community resources. i would bet an arm and a leg that the people crying theft in their LFLs don't like seeing unhoused people and/or people of color in their neighborhoods using the LFLs? like bro if it's free then what do you mean when you say you're having a problem with theft make it make sense! just contribute that time and energy to your local public lib or school district, which is likely vastly more equipped with the expertise, infrastructure, and community relationships necessary to effect positive change on literacy access in an underresourced community