Free Lending Libraries Across US Face Red Tape From Overzealous Bureaucrats

The little free library movement, originating in Madison, Wisconsin in 2009, was thought up as a book sharing program, which was simultaneously meant to serve as a way of building community spirit. The premise is that users construct small enclosed enclosures filled with books, with an honor system governing donations, lending and borrowing. For a small fee, users can register with littlefreelibrary.org's website, which places their little free libraries into a register, including GPS coordinates. Since its launch, the volunteer project has spread to all 50 US states and dozens of countries around the world, with over 15,000 registered little libraries and over 1.6 million books in circulation.

The libraries have been particularly important to rural communities which have no state libraries of their own, and have also been praised for their effect of bringing often-isolated suburban and rural communities together.

However, as an article in CityLab.com by contributor Conor Friedersdorf recently lamented, the little libraries movement has come under systemic attack from "a subset of Americans…determined to regulate every last aspect of community life," with "a lack of common sense so extreme that they've taken to cracking down on Little Free Libraries, of all things."

The first recorded censure of the movement came in 2012, when a small rural community in southeastern Wisconsin required the removal of the little library as part of a village ordinance prohibiting structures in front yards. A year later, village trustees approved the project, but only on private property. Last summer, officials in a community in northeastern Kansas shut down another of the libraries, citing local ordinances and threatening offenders with fines. The threats of legal censure were again removed, but again only on private property. And again just last month, authorities in Los Angeles, California and Shreveport, Louisiana shut down several little libraries following complaints, although a public outcry soon forced officials to rethink the local laws. Despite the ridiculous and petty back and forth, a big part of the problem, as Friedersdorf puts it, is that "we've constructed communities where one must obtain prior permission from agents of the state before freely sharing books with one's neighbors!" And another issue facing communities is that "the power to require permits" in itself "is the power to prevent something from ever existing."

Earlier this month, commenting on the LA angle and the sprinkling of stories about ordinances, bans, fines, allowances and amnesties, LA Times contributor Michael Schaub noted just how ridiculous the situation around little free libraries is: "Crime, homelessness and crumbling infrastructure are still a problem in almost every part of America, but two cities have recently cracked down on one of the country's biggest problems: small-community libraries where residents can share books."