Phone Box Library #37 Little Hadham, Hertfordshire

So we were tootling around Hertford again, with time on our hands, so we headed to the tiny village of Little Hadham. Not to be confused with the larger Much Hadham a mile or so to the north. And there just round the corner from Hadham Forge, we found the 37th telephone box library book exchange.

It is an awe-inspiring four shelf affair with an additional set of shelves on the floor, home to 136 books.

Dan Brown's Angels & Demons was present

I left a copy of Ian Flemming's Casino Royale that I'd previously acquired from Henham, but been unable to read due to Gormanghast committments, and grabbed myself a copy of The Dice Man by Luke Rhinehart. Dice Man had a dose of mildew, probably as a result of its stay in the phone box, the protection from the elements provided isn't the best for books, but I guess its adequate compared to the pulping if it was thrown away.

A notice on the wall of the phone box hints that the keeper of this phonebox book exchange is a councillor called Geoff Williamson

The verge home of the phonebox could do with being cut back as  nettles were encroaching. That said, maybe it has been strimmed at the start of the summer and grown rapidly in the recent good weather, its not easy to stay on top of these things.

Phone Box Library #25 Henham, Essex

The other week during atrocious weather I found myself cruising the winding roads of the Essex / Hertfordshire borders, the rain was coming down torrentially when my wee car pulled up in the village of Henham to check out phone box library #25.

I'd read about this one a few months ago in an article which also covered the phone box library in Arkesden, seven miles away on the other side of the M11. I was somewhat confused about the photo in the news source it was unclear which phone box it was of.


The Henham phone box library was established in mid September 2011, and is still going strong. You can't miss it, slap bang in the middle of the village, huge verges on all sides, pairs of puddle ducks waddling past enthusiastically.

Inside there are four shelves bolted onto the back panel, about a hundred books in total. Shamefully there is no Dan Brown, but making up for this shortfall there are half a dozen Stephen King books, most of his Dark Tower series.

I'd say it was a tiny bit untidy, a couple of books piled on top of rows of books, but at least there were no piles of books on the floor.

I exchanged a copy of my own novel in return for the first of Ian Flemming's James Bond books, Casino Royale, an edition from 1978 with a boobie lady on the front cover.

The rain lessened off a bit, so I ventured out of the phone box to return to my car, taking a few photies of the fine looking duck pond, sign posts and villaginess of the village.

The phone box book exchange in Henham is well worth a visit if you have a spare forty minutes around Standsted Airport and if you love the windy country roads of Essex.


View Phone box libraries in a larger map

Phone Box Library #79 Great Sampford, Essex

I fully believe that there are over a hundred of these phone box library book exchange things in the UK, its just up to me to find them. In idle moments I search of google, twitter and flickr for any combination of keywords that will lead me to new ones that aren't on my definitive list yet.

And so it was that I found this photo on Nicola Riley's Flickr, of the 79th phone box library, in Great Sampford, Essex.

Great Thaxted is in Uttlesford, about five miles from Saffron Walden, and has a population of around 500 people. The village park has a skate park in it.

According to the Parish Council minutes the phone box library / book exchange was in operation from March 2012, materials for the shelves cost £39.60 I might start keeping a record of these costs for comparion purposes, that would be awesome.

There's three shelves, so that's about 80 books. It looks like there's a good provision of children's books. Its hard to tell from the photo if Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is in attendance.

The nearest public library is in Thaxted, 3.6 miles away and Great Sampford is served by a mobile library for forty minutes every fortnight.

Phone Box Library #70 Feering, Essex

As reported in This Is Total Essex, the seventieth phone box library has opened. This can be found in the village of Feering in Essex halfway between Braintree and Colchester and has a population of about 2,000.

The phone box had been disconnected for a number of years and the parish council looked into suggests for what to do with it:-

Feering parish council chairman, Paul Petto, said: "It was one of the locals who lives nearby who suggested using it as a book exchange. They saw something similar while they were on holiday."

The parish council was told that they could buy the phone box for £1, or BT would take it away.

Paul said: "It was in a bit of a state, then one of the local residents, Terry Wilson, did it all up and painted it nicely and the village handyman put some shelves in, too."

Terry, 71, is a former BT engineer.

However, it following the worrying new trend this phone box is kept locked at nights, so it isn't the usual 24 hour access.

The locals seem to like it.

Chris Bonney, whose wife Anne suggested the book exchange, said: "I think what's noticeable because we live so close to it is that people stop at the post office and haven't got any books, but then they have a look at what we've done and go back and get some to do an exchange. It's lovely to see."

There are five shelves, so around 120 books, Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is in attendance, although there are reports that more children's books are required.

The village of Feering is serviced by a mobile library which comes for four hours every fortnight, also the nearest public library is in Coggeshall, about two and a half miles away.

Phone Box Library #69 Wix, Essex

Via the Harwich and Manningtree Standard we learn that the sixty ninth phone box library has recently started in the Essex village of Wix.

The village has a population of around 800 and can be found in the Tendring district of Essex. It lies in a small valley about three km south of the Stour Estuary.

It appears that parish councillor Sue Lusher has been the main driving force behind the phone box library, although Postmaster Efty Anwar was responsible for painting the box.

There are five shelves, so maybe 100 books. It remains to be seen whether Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code is in attendance, but there is a large Reader's Digest World Atlas and an awesome book about Ancient Egypt.

Rather courageously, the parish council have resolved that the phone box is to be kept locked and for access you need to request the key from the post office which is open from 09:00 to 17:30 on weekdays, 9:00 to 12:30 on Saturdays and closed on Sundays.

I think this is the first instance of a phone box library that is locked.

The nearest public library is in Manningtree, about 5 miles away, however the village is also served by a mobile library for half an hour every fortnight

Phone Box Library #67 Little Bentley, Essex

Via a lovely thread on the BookCrossing website forums, I find on Flickr Trevor Powell's photos of what could be the UK's 67th phone box book swap thing in the sleepy Essex village of Little Bentley.

It was converted into a book swap by Mike Taylor and John Leggett and started operation in August 2011.

Its a traditional four shelf unit, jam-packed with around a hundred books, and also a lively parish noticeboard advertising quiz nights at the nearby Bricklayer's Arms. No sign of any of Dan Brown's works, but The Time Traveller's Wife is represented and also reassuringly General Sir John Hackett's The Third World War.

It looks like the nearest public library is in Greenstead, about 7.2 miles away toward Colchester and there is a mobile library service which serves the village every fortnight.

Phone Box Library #66 Barton Stacey, Hampshire

By way of John Spooner on flickr we learn that in the small Hampshire village of Barton Stacey, the parish council have converted their BT phone box into the UK's 66th phone box book exchange.

After a few months of planning and carpentry its been in operation since January 2012.

Looks like solid three shelf job, with a large noticeboard for parish notices. About 70 books, a couple of DVDs and several audio books. They have the almost obligatory copy of Dan Brown's Da Vinci Code

Much like Thruxton, the other phone box library in Hampshire, the nearest public library to Barton Stacey in Andover, about seven miles away, which has not been threatened by closure. Barton Stacey is also serviced by a mobile library which has not been threatened by cuts.

Library in a Phone Box #27 Brynberian, Pembrokeshire

Via the joy that is twitter, another phonebox library has appeared on my radar. A flickr user by the name of Katchoo found a llyfrgell cyfnewid in Brynberian, Pembrokeshire, on the road to Pentre Ifan, the largest dolmen on the British mainland. Katchoo has some fine photos there, and without much difficulty I was able to locate it on google maps too.

Its a good solid five shelf affair, about eighty books, with no sign of kids books as is usual for these things, but a couple of copies of Garden Answers magazine are a nice alternative.

But in Katchoo's accompanying blogpost, a comment has been left by a chap called John Kirriemuir:-

It’s good if there was nothing in the community for book lending before. Not a library in all but the narrowest of definitions though; it’s just a bunch of books that people can borrow.

It’s not so good if the local library has been closed, or taken over as a big society sham “community volunteer-run library” – much more in a post am writing on this. As it means (a) skilled information professional has been made unemployed and (b) the community has lost most or all of these”

This is easy to look into. According to Pembrokeshire council the nearest council-run libraries to Brynberian are Crymych Library which is 7 miles to the east and Newport Library which is 5.1 miles to the north. Also Pembrokeshire has three Mobile Libraries that visit villages and rural areas once every three weeks. So as there are clearly other things in the community for book lending, the phone box swop library is not "good".

I had a check on google and it appears there's no library closures being mooted in Pembrokeshire, there are no news stories about library closures, there are no council documents, there's no easily findable evidence that this phone box library has come about because of library closures. As no local libraries have been closed in Pembrokeshire and no skilled information professionals have been made unemployed, its not "not so good".

Its not a zero sum game, there has never previously been a public library in Brynberian, but there is one now.

This has however pointed me in a new direction in documenting these phone box swop libraries, I can find out how far away the nearest council run libraries are and the proximity of library closures, and then see statistically if there is any correlation.

The future silver age of public libraries and their arch enemy Moore's Law

Earlier today a librarian activist who I follow on twitter was being dismissive of the phone box library phenomenon. I have a soft spot for them.

Several months ago, I don't recall whether it was before of after I started blogging regularly about new phone box libraries, but I was having some kind of online exchange with the librarian activist. She was lamenting the growing number of library closures, and I asked if ever there was a golden age of new libraries being built. I don't recall the answer, but the number of libraries in the UK has been in decline for decades.

I'm hopeful that its not going to decline for ever.

Right now, our elected officials and professionals employed for the purpose of providing libraries are failing, libraries are closing. The total number of libraries will bottom out and then begin to rise again. But at some point between now and the flying car and rocket pack future, there will be a new silver age of libraries being built and opened.

Trying to visualise what these libraries of the future is a difficult task, I don't know what they'll look like, it may be fleets of mobile library buses, or plastic dome-shaped prefab units, with moulded desks and shelves, staffed by a catbot terminal like Emma, or a ubiquitous chain of high street shop/libraries run commercially and owned by the state like the Tote betting shops.

But one thing I'm pretty sure of is that they won't be computery technology centres. I've got a theory:-

Moore's Law is the Enemy of the Public Library!!!

Let me remind you, Moore's Law is that one about computing power doubling every eighteen months/two years. For £100 of computer memory now, in two years you'll be able to buy twice as much, a £1000 computer this year is twice as powerful/fast as a £1000 computer from two years ago.

Its not just cutting edge computers, its independent of price point. Bastard Bob's budget computer's are affected too, a £200 net book from two years back is about half as good as a brand new one.

Look at mobile phones, Amazon Kindle, its the same unstoppable progression of technology. And its exponential.

The other week there was a quotation on the internet about how a three-term prime minister will leave office with a mobile phone 64 times more powerful than the one they came into office with. And "it isn't possible with current technology" is no longer an excuse for not doing something, you just have to wait for a few years.

In the Amazon fire launch the other day there was a slide about how the Amazon original homepage from 1994 was about 40Kb of memory, and now its about 800Kb. A ten year old computer would struggle to run modern HTML5 webpages, a twenty year old computer probably wouldn't load them at all.

At some point the diminishing power of old computers gets dangerous. For example in 1984, the BBC, Acorn computers and the European Comission created the BBC Domesday Project, a survey of Britain in computer form, stored on laser disk that ran on special software on BBC Acorn computers and a specially made laser disk player. They were installed in libraries and schools.

Within three years the laser disks were scratched and wouldn't work well, the guy who knew how to use it would have moved to another job. Twenty years later it took another BBC project to un-encrypt all the locked down data in archaic data formats.

Another example is Microsoft's Internet Explorer 6. Still widely in use, governments across the world have issued warning about security vulnerablities in it and urged everyone to upgrade or use alternative web browsers.

If someone's working on a thing on a computer in a library, and wants to carry the data home with them, what format should the computer be kitted with? Floppy disk, 5.25", 3.5", 3", Zip drive, burn to CD, DVD, memory card, usb drive, save to their own 'library hard disk folder', bluetooth it to a smartphone, google drive, or send it into the cloud? What do you do, accept the short-comings or spend whatever the start up cost was every five years to replace the portable storage media?

So in this future silver age of new public libraries being built, would investors in libraries build computery ones, knowing their cutting edge technology will need replacing every five to ten years?

I doubt it.

Whatever the initial investment is, they're going to have to constantly re-invest to keep the library great, and they can't ever stop.

Only fast buck fly-by-night charlatans would invest in things like that.

In the old village library of my youth, there was a wonderful book on origami, long out of print and forgotten by most library users. It was about thirty years old, but contained some of the most elegant and ingenious works of origami in it's pages. Libraries are great for old books.

Take classics such as War and Peace, Lord of the Rings, Pride and Prejudice. A decent hard back copy could last for decades. Sure the cover will need reattaching every few years and maybe book rebound if pages start falling out, but with a bit of care, the books will last for lifetimes.

Anyhoo, back to phone box libraries. I don't know if they are the future silver age of new libraries. What I do know is that whilst brick and mortar public libraries are being closes and centralised, the phone box libraries are springing up in tiny villages across England at an increasing rate.

Their take up has been propelled by BT's adopt a kiosk scheme, where local communities can buy a red K6 phone box for £1 and use it however they like.

They are a low cost, low maintenance, easily maintainable unit, and as the case of the Coed-y-Paen box confirms, strangely resilient to crime. Within a fortnight of all the books being looted by thieves, the community had restocked it and it was back in use. Their size is entirely appropriate for the tiny villages and hamlets which have employed them to date. They don't require specially bred midget librarians, in fact the villages seem to manage quite with them run by locals without the need for specially trained librarians at all.

Most likely such a model wouldn't work for larger towns and cities with greater densities of library users. But, like the Boris Bike scheme in London, a vast distributed book swap scheme with clusters of local units isn't too much of a stretch of the imagination.

Elsewhere I have documented twenty four of these phone boxes, finding new ones now at a rate of three a month. The phone box library sector is one part of the public library sector which is growing.  BT have sold around 1,500 phone boxes since the scheme started two years ago, and I'm certain that far more than twenty four have been turned into libraries, its just a matter of finding them.

Library in a Phone Box #24 Arkesden, Essex

The Saffron Walden News reports on the opening of a new phone box library in the Village of Arkesden near Saffron Walden in Essex:-

Telephone box walk-in libraries are becoming all the rage as another one pops up in our region.
The unusual High Street accessory was featured last week at Henhan and now villagers in Arkesden are enjoying their newly-acquired collection of books.

BT asked for a donation of £1 to purchase decommissioned phone boxes, which Arkesden Parish Council took them up on earlier this year.

The council then invited residents to decide on a new use for the iconic red box.
Suggestions included a shower, parcel collection box, local information point, history archive, tea stop (with kettle and provisions), art gallery and an honesty grocery shop.

But it was Arkesden resident and mum-of-three, Jemma Macfadyen’s winning library idea that was voted the most popular and usable.

She has since moved temporarily abroad with her family, but thanks to her idea, villagers can now borrow books anytime, day or night and replenish the library with unwanted books from home.
Cllr Jane Chetcuti, from Arkesden Parish Council, said: “Unfortunately, the traditional red phone box has become redundant in modern Britain.

“BT’s great idea for councils to adopt local kiosks not only saves the iconic red box from extinction but also enhances communities.

“Jemma Macfadyen’s book exchange idea provides a lovely focal point where people can meet and swap books they have enjoyed.”

Children's books are also available and a notebook is provided to encourage book reviews and comments.

Beti Newton, ex-postmistress in Arkesden, who has lived next to the phone box for 37 years said: “I used to be paid 50p to clean it every week!

“The library is such a lovely idea and very well-used. I borrowed a book, recommended to me by a friend, just this weekend.”

Looks like a fine example of a four shelf phone box library, although the shelves are less full than other examples with no stacking on top.

After discussing matters with a few acquaintances, I feel I should point out that I have never bought a red phone box from BT, given it a fresh lick of paint, installed shelves, filled it with books and painted on a sign that says "Phone box Library".

However dozens of other people across the UK have done for various reasons, and I'm not such a self-righteous, pompous and condescending prick to tell them that they are wrong, these things are not "libraries", and how dare they use that word for a glorified book-swap, take it down at once, return those books to their private homes and leave public access book exchange facilities to trained professionals and elected officials who clearly and demonstrably know better than village-dwelling little people.

If the patrons of the phone box libraries wish to refer to them as phone box libraries, then that is fine with me.

Forsooth, there have never been public libraries in the villages Thruxton, Cowlinge, Haybridge
and Little Shelford. But now there is at least one structure that bears the word "library".

The existence red phone box libraries, swear down, are not and have never been a reason to close public libraries, or to justify their closure, or excuse their closure, or mitigate their closure, they are merely a serendipitous parochial reaction to the availability of redundant red phone boxes.

Perhaps I'm wrong, The Saffron Walden News, The South Wales Argus, The Warrington Guardian and the BBC too, perhaps we should not be reporting on such trivial matters.

Library in a Phone Box #9 Staplehay, Somerset

Its not often I find myself driving round the 'west country', so whenever I am there, I try to take advantage of the situation and visit as many phone box libraries as I can.

I was on the A5, heading north, and put Staplehay into my sat nav thing. It took us off at junction 26, then on a bit of an adventure through windy country roads when I could have just headed to Taunton and the town of Trull. Anyhoo, we emerged into Staplehay, pulled up at The Crown Inn, and before me stood the mighty Staplehay Book and Info Exchange.

There's four shelves packed with books, and more stacked on top, children's books in a box on the floor with a selection of larger books. Around 150 books in total I reckon.

Library in a Phone Box #23 Haybridge, Wells

Found this one on the way to Wookey Hole, Haybridge is the village just before you get there. Its little more than a street with a few houses and some kind of works depot on the other side, anyhoo, when I spotted a phonebox I hadn't seen before I had to stop and get my camera out.

Its a dusty looking phonebox, still awaiting a fresh lick of paint, but it had a rather fine collection of books, four shelves of a custom-made bookcase, bolted on where the phone used to be. Around a hundred books, with children well-catered for.

Haybridge is about three villages east of Westbury-sub-Mendip, which let me remind you, was the first documented phonebox library. Although when I drove through Westbury, I could see no phone box.

Library in a Phone Box #22 Coed-y-Paen, Gwent

Disaster for the library in a phonebox movement as the South Wale Argus brings us news that thieves have robbed the Coed-y-Paen phonebox of almost its entire stock:-

THIEVES stole 100 books from an old fashioned red phone box which Gwent villagers had converted into their own honesty library.

Coed-y-Paen community council paid BT £1 for the box, installed shelves and filled it with around 100 books donated by villagers as they do not have a library or a bus service to get to one.

But thieves cleaned out the phone box in the middle of the night, stealing all the books - except one, Alan Titchmarsh's autobiography Trowel and Error.

Hilary Jones, 47, a member of Coed-y-Paen's residents' association, said: "Why would anybody need to do that? There's no point to it."

...

But thieves struck last weekend and cleaned the phone box out - a church warden walked past the phone box at around 11.15pm on August 26 and saw the books were still there, but they had been taken by 8.15am on August 27.

Mrs Jones said: "We were really pleased it was getting used, it's always nice to do something that everybody thinks is a good idea. I think the whole village has been saddened by this theft but we are restocking our shelves at the moment, we won't be put off by this."

The villagers are currently refilling the shelves and have around 25 books so far.

It doesn't make sense, thieves stealing secondhand books?

Library in a Phone Box #21 Box, Gloucestershire

Crikey, pimped on the front page of the BBC news website the other day was a story about a phone box library in the village of Box in Gloucestershire, near Stroud. This marks the BBC news's website's tenth phone box library story, and the twenty-first I've clocked in the UK.

Apparently it was inspired by a story on The Archers, I must have missed that one. Anyhoo, it seems to be have been driven by the villagers rather than forced on them by the council. There's a nice quote too from Carolyn Dolan, the villager who's idea it was.

Like all these things the novelty might wear off but at the moment it is being used.

Going by the photo on the BBC website it contains a small three-shelf unit (small Ikea Billy model) and a potted plant, the article reports that the library has around 40 books, which is a bit small compared to the other phone box libraries covered previously on this site.

Elsewhere on the internet, in my old stamping ground of Bolton there's are bit of furore, the council are proposing that to soften the blow of closing a third the local libraries, they're to have ‘Neighbourhood Book Collections’, 300 or so books at local locations.

Ian McHugh, a spokesman from the Save Bolton Libraries campaign says:-

Local people need a proper library service, not a small pile of books in the corner of a community centre.

I think this is an interesting counterpoint to the phonebox library phenomenom, councils can't afford to run full-scale libraries with books, internet access and quiet areas, and librarians are dismissive of some of the alternatives, in the mean time civilians are putting together their own solutions.

Library in a Phone Box #13 Shirley, Derbyshire

So at the weekend just gone, I was out in the wilds of Derbyshire, under glorious sunshine, zipping through country-lanes in my Smart car, and I took the opportunity to visit the village of Shirley.

Its a teeny tiny place, little more than a crossroads, a pub and a church, but it has a phone box library.

It was jam-packed with books,ten shelves at least with books shoved on top, and also boxes for children's books. It was wonderful.

So, it was around lunchtime on a Saturday, and the lanes of Shirley were empty except for a roving crowd of Jehovah's Witnesses, smartly dressed in shirts and ties. We chatted to one of them about the phone box library, he seemed pleasant enough and quite impressed by the extensive range of books, although somewhat disappoving of Dean Koontz as he might be a Jew.

A sign on the outside reported that Oscar, a young colt, had gone missing. Who would have thought that a town with a population of 254 would have horse rustlers?

I dropped off the copy of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian which I'd picked up from the library in Thruxton in June, and picked up a copy of Julian Cope's The Modern Antiquarian. Its quite a find, I can't believe someone would want to be shot of it.

Having having visited a couple of these villages, lost in England's countryside, with their anachronistic phone boxes re-purposed as book repositories, were they ever big enough to host a complete library of their own?

Library in a Phone Box #20 Cowlinge, Suffolk

Continuing on the ttopic of phone boxes which have been turned into libraries as mentioned previously in this blog...
There's something special about this one, all the other phone box libraries I found by searching google, but this one, this has a black swan-like magic.

A colleague at work who had previously taken the piss about me going on about phone box libraries, he got lost the other night in the wilds of Newmarket, and pulling up at a pub, found at the phone box there was actually Cowlinge Public Library. This one isn't in google's search results.

Cowlinge is a sleepy village in rural Suffolk with a population of around 280. The centre of the village is The Three Tuns pub, outside which their library can be found.

A bit of research finds that in 2008 BT disconnected the kiosk as it was getting about one phone call a year, and after a bit of wrangling over electricity bills with EDF, it was sold to the parish council earlier this year.

There's no other information about when or how the library came about, so I guess its some kind of spontaneous community thing, in the absense of other council library provision.

The layout is slightly different to the usual design, with two four-shelf bookcases on either side of the box, the side facing the door has a small 'no smoking' notice.

The Library in a Phone Box

**UPDATE** For a more complete and up to date list of phone box libraries, try this page here

I like libraries, I like the idea of libraries, the first ever grown up work I did was in a library. I'm a bit saddened by all these library closures going on, but I completely understand the need for the state to cut spending and cut the budget deficit. Its the way things are right now, and at some point in the future the tide will turn and library closures will cease.

I wondered has there ever been a golden age of libraries, were new libraries were being opened all the time. It appears not in my lifetime. For the past thirty years the trend has been to close down local branch libraries and move them to 'new' centralised larger ones.

So I was thinking what would a trend turning the closures round look like? Opening new smaller, hyper-efficient model local libraries?

And a little lightbulb came on in ma heid, a half remembered remembory about some village where they'd converted an old phone box into a library. So I trudged onto google, and it appears there's not just one, but loads of them, all over England.

1. Westbury-Sub-Mendip, Somerset

The earliest one I've found is was reported at the end of November 2009, and got quite a bit of media coverage, the BBC reported on it and it dominates the google search results for phonebox libraries. Apparently "A resident dreamed up the idea when the village lost its phone box and mobile library in quick succession." It looks like it could have been promoted via BT press release to support their Adopt a Kiosk scheme.

Its quoted as stocking a hundred books, and looks like its got four shelves, plus heaps and a box for children's books

2. St Margaret South Elmham, Suffolk

Over a year later reports of another one appear on the internet, this time in Suffolk. EDP reporting on one in St Margaret South Elmham, again as part of BT's Adopt a Kiosk scheme, this was amongst 'hundreds' adopted in Norfolk and Suffolk. "villagers have transformed theirs into a “swap box” – one of the country’s smallest lending libraries." One of the smallest, in that its exactly the same size as all the other phone box libraries. No figures are given as to the number of books, but it seems that as part of the scheme BT 'absorb' the £200 a year cost of the electricity for lighting. I wonder who maintains that.

From the photo it looks like at least three shelves, but no sign of stacking.

3. Marton cum Grafton, Yorkshire

At the end of summer 2010, the BBC reported on another, this one in North Yorkshire. Again this is more of a book exchange place, run by kids, and the BBC report is just of it being a three-month trial scheme. That was due to finish in December 2010, I can't find any word on whether its been continued. Perhaps if its kids from a specific school running the show then it'll be continued by each successive year.

Whilst there are five shelves, only three have books lines up, on has long photo of the village and the lowest one has the children's book box.

4. Hatton, Warrington
At the end of 2010 the Warrington Guardian spoke of a plan to convert a phone box on the corner of a pub into a library by putting shelves in, and then requesting book donations. By the end of January Warrington Worldwide was rephttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.giforting on it, and had a photo of it in operation full of books and being used by two locals at the same time

Looks like at least three shelves and a magazine rack on the wall, can't tell if there is a children's book box.

5. Cotebrooke, Cheshire

In January 2010, The Northwich Guardian reported on one opening, members of the parish council jumped at the chance to take over the old phone box when BT were going to decommission it.

They even managed to improve on the traditional library:-

“And the great thing is, they don't have to worry about return dates, which makes it even better than a traditional library.”

Five staggered shelves, with an initial book count of 60.

6. Apethorpe, Cambridgeshire

In the first few months of 2011, The Apethorpe News blog was reporting on the plans to open a phonebox library there. There was plea for books and DVDs, but no new news since March.

Google maps just shows a regular phone box with no evidence of books, so who knows.

7. Point, Truro

The BBC had a video report in March 2011 for the 'book stop' in Point, near Truro, which has been established in response to the mobile library service only coming round every two weeks

Five quite bulky shelves taking up a lot of internal space, only four with books, possibly some more squeezed on top. No sign of children's books box.

8. Feock, Truro

At the end of March, the In The Kernow site has a video report and the Point library and a similar one in Feock, mentioning a launch party at the start of April.

From the video it looks like this has far better shelving than Point's, around six shelves, with a audio-cassette rack too, not sure how many books though

9. Staplehay, Somerset
In the middle of April, the Somerset County Gazette reported on a phone box library opening in Staplehay, which would have been opening on the 18th of April by a councillor from Westbury-Sub-Mendip, as it was directly inspired by. They're proud of the fact that whilst local libraries are reducing their opening hours, the phone box is available 24 hours a day.

Four shelves and a magazine rack, extra points for having a notice board too

10. Horsley, Surrey

At the end of May the BBC reported on one in operation in Horsley, Surrey.

Its more of a guerilla phone box/library conversion compared to the others, less of a community involvement and more of a lone eccentric. In the BBC piece it reports that BT have no knowledge of this one.

Does this even count, looks more like someone hiding rude books I guess it could count as four shelves, but its a bit half-arsed.

11. Little Shelford, Cambridgeshire

A few weeks ago the parish council website for Little Shelford in Cambridgeshire featured a piece on their phonebox library, explaining how to use it, including the vital feedback loop

...for really popular books, if you see a book you fancy reading one time you visit and the next time it’s gone, make a note on the Post-it pad and stick it on the window asking for it to be returned as soon as the last borrower has finished reading it (in other words ‘swopped back into stock’) so that you can get your hands on it. That way the person who borrowed it will know that it is in some demand.

It looks like a clearly laid out box, four shelves of books, one shelf that looks empty and a box for children's books.

12. Thruxton, Hampshire

In the absence of any photo of the Thruxton phonebox library as reported in This Is Hampshire a few weeks ago, I thought I would go for a wee drive in the country and check it out for myself. The weather was glorious, the sky all blue and roasty toasty. We came off mighty A303, weaved our way through some narrow country lanes and there it was before us, Thruxton's own phone box library. We were told by a villager stood nearby that it had been open for about six weeks and it took a while but they've got the balance between people dropping off books and picking up new one's just right.

Its a solid three shelf affair with excess books stacked on top of the top shelf. I left a some feminist books and a Bill Drummond autobiography.

13. Shirley, Derbyshire

The one in Shirley Derbyshire is a bit of an odd story, apparently the council bought it in 2009, but it took until June 2011 for the BBC to report on it. Some neat quotes in the article though

Bill Ellis, from Shirley Parish Council, said: "Even we can stretch to a quid and so it was bought."

The Ashbourne News Telegraph has the interesting tiot-bit that the phonebox library has really taken off even though the village being serviced by a mobile library.

At least seven shelves on two sides, containing 250 books, and childrens books and DVDs.

And others:-

• Coxley, Somerset
• Dinder, Somerset
• West and East Horrington, Somerset
• Blagdon, Bristol
• Tollerton, Nottingham
• Timsbury, Bath

Here's a map I put together showing the approximate locations across England

View Phone box libraries in a larger map

Sure, this is all mostly as a result of BT's Adopt a Kiosk scheme and a lot of them might be little more than a book exchange scheme, more akin to finding a book left on a park bench, but these are very real examples of 'the local community' doing it for themselves.

Is there a disconnect between what professional librarians say are the services provided by libraries, somewhere quiet to read and do homework, free internet access, someone to point them in the right direction for research, etc, and what the local community want as a library which by way of phone box libraries is just access to different books?

There's three angles at work here:-

• There's the state by way of democratically elected national government and local councils who have decided to cut back on and centralise library services as a cost saving in preferences to other things that could be cut.
• There's the state by way of the appointed professional librarians who are paid for their expertise in librarianship who want to stop the cuts and ensure that the wider services provided by libraries are retained
• and finally there's the state by way of people in local communities, who, regardless of other provisions and decisions elsewhere, identify the need and then establish the phone box libraries.