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Comment by isykt | Hacker News Reader

Not a fan of little free libraries, personally. They are a dumping ground for unwanted books, and they’re placed in neighborhoods that traditionally have the most access to books, not the least.

Libraries are not just stacks of books. Information access is an ongoing challenge that requires experts to help others navigate. Libraries have librarians for this. In that sense, LFLs aren’t libraries at all, they’re just book boxes with an unclear mission and no documented success criteria.

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Unwanted? By you maybe? They were purchased at some point. Someone took the effort to put them in a place others can take (opposed to just trashing them - which is where most unwanted things go)

> unclear mission and no documented success criteria.

I think if a single person (rich or poor) read a single book they otherwise wouldn't... then it was a success.

The books were obviously not wanted by the people who put them there, otherwise they would have kept them.

A single person reading a book they wouldn’t have otherwise is an absolutely miserable ROI for the materials and labor involved. It would be much more efficient to just offer the first person you meet a free book of their choice from Amazon.

You don't have to keep things you like. It's okay to share them and give them away to others. It does not diminish how much you liked or wanted that item to begin with. By sharing it, you are trying to spread that want that you once had. I admit this isn't the case always, but sometimes.

Eh - whats the harm? Not everything needs to have a positive ROI.

“What’s the harm?” is just turning the question around because the original question — “what’s the benefit?” — doesn’t have a satisfying answer.

If you want to reduce it down to “LFLs make people with extra books feel good” then, great, it’s obviously a resounding success, as evidenced by all the articles of people who built them beaming.

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