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.