The World's oddest libraries

Log books

It’s not over for the printed word: a new book exploring the 21st-Century revolution in libraries finds surprising ways in which books are being shared. In Improbable Libraries, journalist Alex Johnson pulls together projects offering reading material for free in phone booths, sheds and airports. In his introduction, Johnson writes: “The very concept of a library is evolving: many of these libraries operate on principles that differ fundamentally from the workings of most traditional public and university libraries. Some, for example, have no membership or identification requirements, and some do not even ask that the books be returned.” This oversized bird box in a park in Iowa is part of the Little Free Library movement, which was established in Wisconsin in 2009. Improbable Libraries by Alex Johnson is published by Thames & Hudson. (Credit: Little Free Library)

Inside and out

There are now an estimated 12,000 Little Free Libraries around the world. According to project organisers: “There is an understanding that real people are sharing their favourite books with their community. These aren’t just any old books, this is a carefully curated collection and the library itself is a piece of neighbourhood art.” In 2013, architects were paired with community organisations in New York to design book shelters that fit with the Little Free Library ethos. This design from the firm Stereotank offered shelter for browsing passers-by. In the UK, phone company BT’s Adopt a Kiosk programme – allowing communities to take over their phone booth for £1 – means that many have been converted into tiny local libraries. Meanwhile, a motion-sensor solar light has been installed in a phone booth in New York State so that late-night visitors can still read. (Credit: Marcelo Ertorteguy and Sara Valente/Stereotank)

Branches of knowledge

Didier Muller’s Libraire Urbaine (pictured) operates as a suspended library: visitors can leaf through pages, taking any book they choose and replacing it with their own. The installation of hanging cabins is one of several art projects that turn the everyday into a booklover’s refuge. In New Zealand, a refrigerator was converted to a library following the earthquake in Canterbury, and Portuguese artist Marta Wengorovius designed a tiny library in a shed that can only be used by one person. (Credit: Didier Muller/House Work)

Beyond the book

Around the world, architects are designing buildings that bend bricks-and-mortar libraries into new forms. The Seikei University Library in Japan (pictured) – the vision of Pritzker Prize-winner Shigeru Ban – contains space-age soundproofed pods to encourage discussions between students. Opened in 2013, the Library of Birmingham incorporates herb gardens, an art gallery and a health centre as well as bookshelves. Its designer Francine Houben, of Dutch architecture studio Mecanoo, says “the modern library is no longer solely the domain of the book”. (Credit: Seikei University)

Blue-sky thinking

In Luckenwalde in the east of Germany, a dilapidated railway station has been renovated to house the city’s public library: its tilted annex has a golden copper-aluminium facade that shimmers in sunlight. In another project 140km (90 miles) to the west in Magdeburg (pictured), a new library has appeared on the site where a derelict GDR-era example once stood. Planned as a ‘social structure’ by the architecture firm Karo, the three-sided open-air structure features 20,000 books on glass-fronted shelves. It is open 24 hours a day and operates on an honesty basis. (Credit: Thomas Voelkel)

Over the hump

Although an entire library can now be downloaded in hours, four-legged transport is still the preferred means of bringing books to some remote areas of the world. Donkey-drawn libraries can be found in Zimbabwe, Ethiopia and Colombia, and a charity in Laos brings books to some groups using an elephant. The writer Jambin Dashdondog (pictured) has distributed books to children in Mongolia’s Gobi desert for 20 years – on the back of a camel. Other camel-based ‘bookmobiles’ include a project in Kenya that makes regular visits to areas affected by drought. (Credit: Jambyn Dashdondong /Mongolian Children’s Culture Foundation/Go Help)

Tentpole events

Pop-up libraries are on the rise: the Story Tower in Latvia has been created as a temporary replacement for a local public library (with a roof made from folded Tetrapak containers) and Biblio Taptap bookmobiles were set up in taxis after a series of natural disasters in Haiti. Some have more aims: the People’s Library (pictured) was created by Occupy Wall Street protesters in New York during their 2011 campaign. It held 5,500 books and was contained within a tent donated by the singer Patti Smith before it was destroyed in a police raid. (Credit: David Shankbone)

Shelf envy

Furniture designer Sallie Trout’s home in Austin, Texas features a 12m (40ft)-high home library. Spanning three floors, it provides light to the lower parts of the house – but the shelves at the top can only be reached on a bosun’s chair of the sort used by window cleaners hoisted by a remote control-operated chain. In another American home library, the anthropologist and writer Wade Davis commissioned Travis Price architects to remove the books from his writing studio and store them in a dome 16ft(5m) above the floor. (Credit: Design – Trout Studios/Photo: Hester & Hardaway)