Little Free Libraries, BookCrossing Zones and more in LibraryThing Local

Blog post: http://www.librarything.com/blogs/librarything/2013/11/littlelibraries/

Other topics:
* Adding Little Free Libraries http://www.librarything.com/topic/161223
* Adding Book Crossing Zones http://www.librarything.com/topic/161224
* The origin "beta" group topic http://www.librarything.com/topic/160991

Do you want bug reports and suggestions for improvements here or somewhere else?

No, here's good. Whacha got?

When I go to my "Local" page, at the top, under "Little Libraries" it says:

There are bo "Little Libraries" within 0 miles.

I'm guessing you meant "no", not "bo". (smile)

Also, I don't see how to change the range from 0 miles to something more useful.

ETA: well, I see now that the range would have to be hundreds of miles before anything showed up, so maybe that's not so important.

4: LFL in IL haven't been entered yet. They do exist, so keep checking...

Or add them yourself!

(Almost) completely off-topic question, but inspired by the blog post.

What is the "Board for Extreme Thing Advances?" I've seen it around for years, but never got around to asking about it. There's a lovely link in the Little Libraries blog post, but apparently it's a private group.

7> There's a clue in that the acronym for the group is BETA.

>8 jjwilson61: Thanks! I would have never noticed that in a million years.

Message me if you want an invite.

>5 qebo:, 6: Yes, I know of one about a mile from my house; once I find out its exact address I will add it. But since it's more than 0 miles from my location, will it show up after I add it?

Yeah. It's going down to 0 because there are none. I'll fix that.

A question. In my part of the world we have several pubs that have charity book swap shelves. In other words it is like a free book swap shelf like Little Free Libraries, Official BookCrossing Zones and Telephone Box book exchanges only they ask for a donation to charity. Is it OK to list these as Little Libraries?
Apologies if this was the wrong place to ask, I'm new around here.

#13

It is a good question. My local pub does a book shelf which people are free to take and leave books. It isn't even a swap. Someone could just be a taker if they wish.

> 13

I think that Tim intends for us to list all "little" collections. If there are caveats, such as a donation to charity, simply list that in the description.

The more people who know about that collection, the more people who will visit and the more money will be collected by the charity. Post your entry under the subtype "Other" and include the name of the charity in the description.

By the way, a heart welcome to LibraryThing ardachy!!

Is it OK to list these as Little Libraries?

More than okay.

Just chiming in to say THANK YOU for this amazing resource. I often plan road trips around OBCZs and LFLs and this will make things SO much easier.

Well, MY motivation just went way up.

What about hotels that have libraries? Mrs. Lee's hotel and there is a chain I've stayed in. I am pretty sure there is a whole thread on the topic.

Yeah, just mark them as "Hotel library" or something. We can filter them in and out as necessary later, if they're marked.

Country Inns & Suites has a (trademarked name) Read It and Return program. So far, I have entered one. http://www.librarything.com/venue/87450. There are - 470.

Anyone else finding that addresses listed with a Little Free Library don't seem to match the actual location of the LFL? I've only come across a couple that I wasn't able to figure out. I'm hoping someone who has actually been to the LFL will correct the entry. In one case it's supposed to be at a city park, but the address was well outside the very small city limits. Another was supposed to be outside a church, but there wasn't an obvious nearby church to pick.

This McDonald's Restaurant in San Diego, California, USA had a wall of bookcases where people could read or take books. It's the only McDonald's I've seen with one but I imagine there are lots of coffee shops that do something similar.

The new Starbucks in Disneyland on Main Street has bookshelves but the books are either fake book-like boxes, etc. (poor show in my opinion) or attached permanently as decorator items. Hence, I don't think it would count but the McDonald's example above should.

James

21: I'm finding occasional oddities, sometimes seems a mixup of sponsor and LFL location, sometimes typos. I've been able to clear up some with GPS coordinates. One was a PO box, and I looked up the host's name in the white pages, still didn't get a street address, so I let it be as is. So I guess we do what we can. I'm figuring better to have it in LT with somewhat iffy info that can be corrected later.

Maybe if you can't resolve a discrepancy, mention so in the description?

Thanks.

My oncologist's office has an open bookshelf that's unlikely to be used by anyone who didn't have business at that office. After all, it's not the sort of place one would visit because they have books. But I am still wondering if it would qualify.

At least one of the LFL libraries I've entered was inside a business. I'd say it qualifies, but should be labelled clearly as to location. It certainly shows thoughtfulness towards the patient - something I think is an important quality for any practitioner to have any particularly so in an oncologist.

Then the shelves in the holiday village in Alcudia, Mallorca we stayed at this summer also qualify...

Anyone flown Qantas lately? Their "Stories for any journey" custom collections of books might qualify? The address would be hard to pin down.
http://theinspirationroom.com/daily/2013/qantas-stories-for-every-journey/

I see several have been added in Australia, but none in my country, New Zealand, yet, and none listed on the LFL's site for NZ.

What fun! I couldn't find any listed here for Oregon, so thought I would try it out. The LFL map on Google is a bit clunky; I got California, then Idaho, before finally landing on Mill City, Oregon. As the name suggests, Mill City is an old wood products town (sawmill/plywood), but the mills shut down long ago and the place was in decline. Now it seems it is becoming quite the hipster place - they have a LFL sponsored by Vimana Cycle, a builder of fine custom bicycles!

This could get to be addictive, like so many things here. I feel a road trip coming on!

> 22: I've not looked forward to visiting a McDonald's since our son outgrew Playland and Happy Meals, but I know where I'm going if I ever get to San Diego -- Thanks!

> 23: How big is the P.O. Box?

(none) - a very useful category to find LFLs entered in the US that are missing a state.

Trouble is, both these entries HAVE a state and I've edited the state multiple times to try to get them to show up in the correct state. Can't seem to make it happen.

toggle favoriteLittle Free Library at 24447 N. Dustin Rd.
24447 N. Dustin Rd., Acampo, CA 95220
toggle favoriteLittle Free Library at 2792 Adams Street
2792 Adams Street, Adamstown, MD 21710

Tim - could you please take a look?

>31 MDGentleReader:

The address in Maryland appears to be correctly placed:

http://www.librarything.com/local/map/venue/86442/Little-Free-Library-at-2792-Ad...

Ah, but it is also listed under (none)

I see there are 2 LFLs in my area, Montgomery, AL USA. I will try to visit them ASAP and take a pic.
How did you know about them, timspalding?

Ah, but it is also listed under (none)

Ah. So are 1,700 other venues. It's failing somehow… Looking at.

The "none" option is now fixed.

Thanks!

Hmm. Every US state I click on - including (none), I get the result of None. Something is amiss.

Huh. Start from http://www.librarything.com/local_directory.php?subtype=1

Then you click a state, and it's always the none result?!

Start at your own local and type in a state name. you will get a list of a lot of venues in that state, but at the top is:
Little Libraries

There are no "Little Libraries" within 0 miles.

(Essex VT gives me:
Little Libraries

There are 3 "Little Libraries" within 25 miles.)

Well, so the problem is that typing in the state name gives you a place in the epicenter of the state. It doesn't give you the state directory. Maybe it should.

39> It was earlier this morning. It's fine now.

Just found out about LFL on LibraryThing, I finally have a good place to post all the photos I take of LFL's. It seems very little is done for the NYC metro area. I live in Brooklyn, NY and commute to work via Staten Island, my work place is in Carteret, NJ, so I already added a bunch in Brooklyn, Staten Island, and places not far from Carteret. Join me! Metro NYC is a big place!

>43 qaptainqwerty: Go to this link to enter all of those LFLs nearest you!
https://littlefreelibrary.org/map/

For the Local feature, how can I tell how many LFL etc I already entered?

I think you can only look at the Local Helpers page: https://www.librarything.com/local/helpers, which shows top venue adders, recent helpers/venues, etc.

There's a couple of other places >45 qaptainqwerty:
Your badge page shows a count: https://www.librarything.com/stats/MEMBERNAME/badges
LFL are counted within the Bookstores badge, so it's okay for a grand total of venues added, but no good if you specifically want to know only LFL.

There's also the Zeitgeist helpers page: https://www.librarything.com/zeitgeist/helpers
Set the button near the top from 'Last Week' to 'All Time' and look for the Local section of the page about halfway down, Adding Venues is one of the counts. It again only has venues overall, no type breakdown, and there must be a limit in place to avoid the page being forever-long, but if you've done more than a few you'll show up there :-)

Edit to add one more thing: this topic is old, being the original 2013 announcement. There is a LibraryThing Local dedicated group: https://www.librarything.com/ngroups/4015/Librarything-Local
If you are looking to get some site users to help out with any projects, there might be a good place to try.

>47 Nevov: Ah, the Badges count is what I need, almost. I added mostly Little Free Libraries, bona fide and otherwise, so that's close enough. Thank you!

>48 qaptainqwerty: Added a stats page that shows venues added: https://www.librarything.com/stats/MEMBERNAME/local

>49 knerd.knitter: Wow! Cool!! Thanks!!!

>49 knerd.knitter: Just what I need! Well, I do have to copy the list into a spreadsheet to get a count but it's still a very nice feature, thank you!

>51 qaptainqwerty: Oh, I can put a count on there!

>52 knerd.knitter: Wonderful! I can see that I am at 103, long way to catch up to 700+ but I will keep hacking away, thank you!

How should a Local store be removed? I see a Delete option but I also see items marked as Archived, which makes it sould like there should be an Archive button. I recently delete a location for Touro College that was converted to a Jewish school, it became listed as Defunct. I feel I should have archived it somehow.

>54 qaptainqwerty:

Defunct status is the correct outcome. Deletion should only be for venues that never actually existed.

Library Thing Local can handle Google Map plus codes! There is this Little Free Library near my office, in a nature preserve, just off the nearby main road. Google Map lists Ernest L. Oros Wildlife Preserve as being at 75 Omar Ave, Avenel, NJ 07001, but using that address put the location all the way west at the intersection of Omar Avenue and Rahway Avenue. However, by using the plus code Google Map assigned to the Preserve, HPPQ+65 Avenel, Woodbridge Township, NJ, the library is now actually in the Preserve, a little closer than what it really is.

So, how do we add more to the map? LT only has 1 for my town and currently the littlelibrarysite has way more than that. I was thinking I could kill some time bumming around town and verify they're actually active before doing the next move?

Click Local in the top bar and then click Add Venue in the lefthand menu.

And LibraryThing Help is contextual, so if you click Help at the top right once you are on a local page you should get taken to the wiki with further instructions that may or may not be up to date.