Little Free Curators

Actually, I believe that the Little Free Library Association calls the people who install and maintain little free libraries stewards which makes sense because the maintenance of them can be important. I think a little free library in my neighborhood might have a new steward because it just got quite a glow up.

I don’t think I even took a picture of it before because,to be honest, it looked like a library without a steward. It’s looking really inviting now.

Even if a little library doesn’t have a steward they still attract books but that doesn’t seem to be the case with other little spaces which seem to need curators to be successful. The Little Seed Library in my neighborhood never had seeds in it and when, due to construction, it was moved near a little free library it also started to aquire books. At one point a sign complete with seed packet insisted that it was a Little Seed Library to no avail.  In fact, it often has more books in it than the little free library a few feet away from it.

Now that the construction is over, someone has installed a Little Free Art Exchange where the seed library used to be.

Unfortunately, as has been the case with the one in Andersonville, it was empty on the day I photographed it.

There are some well curated art gallery exhange ones that I follow on Instagram but I’ve yet to see one in the wild.

Speaking of art focused ones, I don’t think I ever posted the picture I took that illustrates the challenge of an art material exchange. Last summer in Columbia I was excited to open the box outside the Artlandish gallery.

Unfortunately, it was a very hot day and the crayons that someone had generously shared were melting and sticking to the box!

There might be a reason that Little Free Book libraries are more successful than Little Free Anything Elses!