r/LittleFreeLibrary

Someone ripped the door off the LFL in our park so I painted and replaced it. I also added a small keychain/trinket trade on the back.

My nine year old and I love to find LFL’s when we go to neighboring towns, and frequently visit the ones in our own town as well. We have donated about 50 books to the community, but we also take books and my child gets very excited to get new books. We both have trouble giving up our books.

Yesterday we went to a LFL and lo and behold, a neighbor had set up a second one with no charter. We talked to the steward and told them how much we enjoyed their library. My kid ran to the next one, and as I am looking at the one with the charter, I hear, “Mommy, I can’t open it!!!” I went over to help him, and he started telling me all the cool books they had inside. Books he actually wanted to read. Roald Dahl, Beverly Cleary, Judy Blume….

I tried to open it and it was screwed shut. There was no way to access the books. Pretty sure someone got a good laugh at us struggling for a moment with this box.

In the car, my son asked why someone would do that? He really was excited to get some books he has been wanting to read. I also wanted to clean up that bottom shelf a little, because I like to organize the libraries when we get books. I joked that next time we visited, we would bring a screwdriver.

The most disappointing thing was how sad my son was at this fake out, but we found some other good books and a game at the next one, so it was quickly forgotten.

First thing, thanks to everyone for their suggestions, in particular those who pointed out the use if the Barcode for used book dealers.

The book shown, has had multiple things attempted. There is clear packing tape over the ink stamp and the white labels.

My initial work will be to try to use easily available common household items and start testing the simplest ideas first and then work from there.

First let me report on what doesn't work.

1. Just ink stamping it on glossy covers is messy, smudges off and can be removed with a facial tissue and rubbing alcohol or just a lens wipe. It tends to smear from ordinary handling. Rubbing the surface with rubbing alcohol as a surface pretreatment doesn't improve the printing. See the mess the ink stamp has become.

2. I used a sharpie over barcodes and easily wiped off the sharpie with 91% alcohol as sold by Walmart.

3. I used a sharpie on the back cover to see if the ink solvent mixture would penetrate through the cover and spoil the barcode. Some slight graying of the white could be seen in one case, but not another. Further, in the case of the one book where some slight penetration, the barcode turned out to be on a lable that went on the printed book, but was beneath the glossy finish. THIS LINE OF INQUIRY WILL NOT BE FURTHER RESEARCHED.

So what works and what did I do.

1. I did vertical lines with a ball point pen on the bar code. It breaks up the glossy coating. When I went over with a sharpie some of the marker penetrated into the paper and I think helped make the bar code unusable.

I then put an adhesive lable on it which would now bind to paper fibers exposed. I in stamped the paper label. I then applied packing tape over the labels. When trimming the label, you should make sure there are no sharp corners, by cutting it so corners are curved. See picture. I RECOMMEND THIS AS A MINIMAL THING TO DO NOW FOR BAR CODES AND ISBN NUMBERS..

I did another book and it had a barcode that was smaller and it looked better than the book in the picture. I strongly recommend AGAINST having the white labels overlap.

2. For cases where I stamped the book, I applied packing tape over it. It at least stops smearing and it can't be removed by rubbing alcohol.

3. I did Experiment #1 above with scratching with an exacto blade and it didn't seem to work to break up the coating. Of course coating chemistry and specifications might vary. So this result isn't conclusive.

Next work.

1. I ordered clear adhesive mailing labels to try out. They won't have corners that can be caught by finger nails easily to remove them. However, I don't know if they will stick as strongly as packing tape. They will be more convenient to use.

2. Instead of trying to scrap off the coating, I am going to try shallow cuts with the exacto so the sharpie can soak into the paper.

3. I am going to test other common house hold liquids if used as a pretreatment. they modify the surface for better ink stamping and resistance for removal.

4. I am going to look at sanding/abrading the bar code. Then sharpie. Then white label, then clear adhesive film.

5. Wood branding burners. (Maybe.)

6. Nail polish remover to remove the cover coating.

7. Embossing stamp. Though this might be more than what people want to spend.

I will issue another report on my results.

Jay, New York.

We have a person in our area known for stealing books from Little free libraries and selling them to used book stores. So I ordered a stamp and I stamp twice on the inside covers, title page, copyright page, and last page.

However, stamping the covers is more of a problem. When I have to stamp the cover of a book with glossy finish, I have to let it dry 15 minutes, then carefully turn it over and lay it on a face tissue, then stamp the other cover. It takes hours to fully dry, but it can be easily removed with a lens wipe.

Can you purchase a press that embosses text? What do people do. Perhaps a super tough label that can't be peel applied over the stamped text? Perhaps a heated stamp to burn the text on. I don't know. I think that someone has solved this problem before.

Some recent observations:

Board books/baby books move fastest out of my library

Middle grade books probably the slowest. Which is a bummer since it really speaks to the dip in readership that exists there.

It is the most difficult to find second hands of books that will actually interest the adult patrons. The most trendy tik tokiest books go and everything else just sits there a while/or forever til I pull it.

Here's the back.

I paint tiny watercolor illustrations of two little bear characters, and on the back of each card I write a short kind message for whoever happens to find it.

I’ve started leaving them inside Little Free Libraries (the little neighborhood book exchange boxes) around where I live in the Netherlands. I thought people that are looking for books might want to use it as a bookmark.

I know there’s a good chance I’ll never know who finds them, and I think that’s my favorite part.
It feels like sending a tiny piece of kindness into the world.

My dad helped me make it. I modeled it after a Victorian house I love.

This sort of reminds me of the whimsical singing and dancing furniture from Beauty and the Beast🌹

Abandoned a bigger dragon sculpt at a little free library today! There were some imperfections in his design but I know someone will still love him! Happy hunting!