It is definitely smaller than the phone booth library in England.
This tiny library is the close to where I live.
This bookshelf library can be accessed from either side by opening the glass doors. There are ten shelves, five on each side. The sign in German, when translated says, "open book closet." It is an official Frankfurt am Main City Public Library and is always open.
Of course, since this is Germany, books are borrowed on the honor system. Take a book and bring it back when you've finished reading.
I looked inside and scanned the titles. They are all in German and some of the books looked very old! I pulled one out to look at it's printing date: 1926!
Another angle of this library.
Libraries, whether large or small, whether the books are in English or another language, are one of my favorite places in the world.
4 comments:
What a cool library! We had a bookmobile that would come to our neighborhood, but I've never seen a kiosk shelf like this. (But I can totally believe the honor system!)
I Love this! What a happy surprise to come across your great post! I've never heard of such a thing as a library like this and I enjoyed the photos and reading about it.
I came across your blog through Greg Leitich Smith's blog. He's participating in a writer's conference I'm attending this summer. And boy do I ever feel lucky I found you! I love your blog! And I relish the thought of returning. Thank you for sharing!
Brenda, thanks for visiting! It's nice to meet you. Enjoy your conference this summer; cool that Greg will be there!
Rose-- this kiosk shelf also surprised me. I now walk by it on purpose, when I head out that direction, and it appears that there is a decent amount of borrowing and returning of books taking place.
There are actually about a douzend of these "public book shelves" all over Frankfurt. The idea is that you bring books that you have read but don´t want to keep and take books you want to read. Take a book, leave a book. Its a wonderfull system
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