In Europe we have Buchschränke (Tauschschränke)
There's a open street map tag: https://wiki.openstreetmap.org/wiki/Tag:amenity%3Dpublic_bookcase
this post was submitted on 06 Oct 2025
299 points (99.3% liked)
You Should Know
41437 readers
78 users here now
YSK - for all the things that can make your life easier!
The rules for posting and commenting, besides the rules defined here for lemmy.world, are as follows:
Rules (interactive)
Rule 1- All posts must begin with YSK.
All posts must begin with YSK. If you're a Mastodon user, then include YSK after @youshouldknow. This is a community to share tips and tricks that will help you improve your life.
Rule 2- Your post body text must include the reason "Why" YSK:
**In your post's text body, you must include the reason "Why" YSK: It’s helpful for readability, and informs readers about the importance of the content. **
Rule 3- Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here.
Do not seek mental, medical and professional help here. Breaking this rule will not get you or your post removed, but it will put you at risk, and possibly in danger.
Rule 4- No self promotion or upvote-farming of any kind.
That's it.
Rule 5- No baiting or sealioning or promoting an agenda.
Posts and comments which, instead of being of an innocuous nature, are specifically intended (based on reports and in the opinion of our crack moderation team) to bait users into ideological wars on charged political topics will be removed and the authors warned - or banned - depending on severity.
Rule 6- Regarding non-YSK posts.
Provided it is about the community itself, you may post non-YSK posts using the [META] tag on your post title.
Rule 7- You can't harass or disturb other members.
If you harass or discriminate against any individual member, you will be removed.
If you are a member, sympathizer or a resemblant of a movement that is known to largely hate, mock, discriminate against, and/or want to take lives of a group of people and you were provably vocal about your hate, then you will be banned on sight.
For further explanation, clarification and feedback about this rule, you may follow this link.
Rule 8- All comments should try to stay relevant to their parent content.
Rule 9- Reposts from other platforms are not allowed.
Let everyone have their own content.
Rule 10- The majority of bots aren't allowed to participate here.
Unless included in our Whitelist for Bots, your bot will not be allowed to participate in this community. To have your bot whitelisted, please contact the moderators for a short review.
Rule 11- Posts must actually be true: Disiniformation, trolling, and being misleading will not be tolerated. Repeated or egregious attempts will earn you a ban. This also applies to filing reports: If you continually file false reports YOU WILL BE BANNED! We can see who reports what, and shenanigans will not be tolerated. We are not here to ban people who said something you don't like.
If you file a report, include what specific rule is being violated and how.
Partnered Communities:
You can view our partnered communities list by following this link. To partner with our community and be included, you are free to message the moderators or comment on a pinned post.
Community Moderation
For inquiry on becoming a moderator of this community, you may comment on the pinned post of the time, or simply shoot a message to the current moderators.
Credits
Our icon(masterpiece) was made by @clen15!
founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
Every time I look into one of these, it's just shitty self help or business pulp. The good books get stolen and sold on eBay :(
But sometimes I also discover the absolute best trash. For example, without my local little free library, I never would have learned about Sexual Kung Fu which is totally a real thing and not made up by a white guy that visited Asia for a few years that sells self-help coaching now.
Imagine, until that book I had gone my entire life without knowing that penises and vaginas have front gates and back gates.
Also, did you know that if you train hard enough you can have a kidney orgasm? And a lung orgasm?
We have these around in various places, I don't see some "nonprofit" taking credit for them.
We set one up at the front of our yard years ago and I love having it! I try to keep a good stock of kids, romance, and fantasy in it as that seems to be the name for our neighborhood.
Personally I love seeding them with Victorian smut
So it's an organization/brand? I thought it was just something that some homeowners like to do, not an official thing.
Yes and no. Not everybody knows about this organization and lists the library they made on this map, but most do!
Don't even have to be a homeowner. A map to find Free Book Shelves is a welcome additon though.
I have seen a few of those around in my city and even some version of it at the college I attend. I wholeheartedly think these are great, so long as people don't abuse them. I've never seen one being abused here, but I can guarant in some regions it has already been abused.
Meanwhile I've never seen one not abused! People love to take the books, but not return them. I know this because I've made multiple trips to restock my local little library and every single time I went, nearly every book was gone, every time. I never saw any of the books I added ever again.
I wonder if it’s one shitty person causing all the problems.
Yeah I haven't kept up with it but for a while there around me, these had a huge problem of people cleaning them out and selling all the decent books in them for some cash. Rinse and repeat every time it was restocked.
I’ve seen this once or twice but barring knowing the goal of the owner wasn’t sure if it’s appropriate to help restock.
As a big example I believe many of these are lgbtq or diversity friendly but that can be controversial. It’s not my business to make a statement in your library: should I donate an lgbtq book? a western? Romantic? Children’s? I have them all and support almost any goal encouraging reading or thinking, i just need to know what it is
Thanks for the map, I see the one in my immediate neighborhood is not listed but there are two others within an easy walk!
I’ll have to let them know
I did always wonder what the goals and protocols were. Can I donate to one or respect their choices of content? Am I acting suspicious if I stand there to “browse the stacks” and see if there is anything that interests me?
Can I donate to one or respect their choices of content? Am I acting suspicious if I stand there to “browse the stacks” and see if there is anything that interests me?
Literally all those things are encouraged! It’s in fact expected for others to donate, because otherwise the library would slowly empty itself out through attrition/non-returns.
Oh, there's a map! Great, now I can setup a route to find books to steal and sell back to book shops to feed my meth addiction /s
I like these things. Had no idea there was an organisation involved.
Fun fact: you can get them in Animal Crossing. You can buy them straight up, or make them — the availability of the crafting recipe, or the item being available in the shop, however, is completely random. And they don't "do" anything. They're just a decoration. I like having one on my island near my houses though, or maybe up by the museum, but my current character has neither the recipe nor the actual item. One of those things that, if I get the recipe/item, I'll definitely put one out.
i live in an apartment and i want to make one in the hallway by the door for everyone :3