The Contribution of Street Libraries in Australia to Literacy, Community and the Gift Economy

ABSTRACT

This paper examines the phenomenon of Australian ‘street libraries’. Enthusiasts have suggested that they contribute to their communal fabric, providing increased sociability and promoting reading and literacy. Street libraries have been associated with ‘placemaking’ activities. Seen as part of the ‘gift’ economy, their ‘Take a book. Give a Book. Share a Book.’ motto promotes their role in recycling. International research has contested some of these claims, with some critics suggesting their role in addressing ‘book deserts’ is limited, that they represent a highly individualised paternalism by social and economic elites, and they are associated with the neoliberal assault on public libraries. This paper finds mixed evidence in support for the views of advocates and critics. Australian street libraries are skewed towards localities with the highest socio-economic measures of advantage. They are less ‘interventions’ into the landscape, as associated with private ownership. Street librarians are not, however, disproportionately urban, and their maintainers have greater economic diversity than their ‘elite’ characterisation would imply. Street libraries can be seen as an example of a gift economy, recycling about $11 million in value in 2021. In addition, some social capital advantages in establishing and maintaining a street library can be identified.

KEYWORDS:

• Street libraries
• Little Free Library
• Australia
• social capital
• gift economy
• urban interventionism

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the reviewers for their incisive comments on the draft, Myfanwy Chen for her input in the development of this paper, and Cecile Schuldiener and Street Library Incorporated for their assistance in the research implementation.

Disclosure Statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Street Library Incorporated has not established an online book registration and tracking system at the time of writing.

2 This estimate was made by comparing the number of street libraries located in the Australian Capital Territory in Street Library Incorporated’s database with a second list maintained by the Lil Street Libraries Facebook group. The second list included a larger number of street libraries in that territory as it does not rely on voluntary registration, but allows ‘spotters’ to add libraries to the list, making the list more accurate. This allowed the national registration list to be adjusted based on the estimate it included a 57.4% reporting rate.

3 This list is publicly available information which includes location, registration date, a photo, name and description. The information is embedded in an online map (https://streetlibrary.org.au/find/).

4 This study, however, represented more of a proof of concept of the value of geographical information systems in identifying locations where these services should be targeted, rather than an analysis of their performance per se.

5 The complete set of census measures employed in the IRSAD are INC_HIGH, INC_LOW, NOYR12ORHIGHER, NOEDU, CERTIFICATE, ATUNI, DIPLOMA, DEGREE, UNEMPLOYED, OCC_LABOUR, OCC_DRIVERS, OCC_SERVICE_L, OCC_SALES_L, OCC_PROF, OCC_MANAGER, LOWRENT, OVERCROWD, HIGHBED, HIGHRENT, HIGHMORTGAGE, OWNING, SPAREBED, CHILDJOBLESS, ONEPARENT, NOCAR, DISABILITYU70, ENGLISHPOOR, SEPDIVORCED, NONET, HIGHCAR (ABS, 2018).

6 The geospatial analysis in this figure employed a smaller geographical area for street libraries than for public libraries. The latter used the IRSAD at the much larger postcode level, as a means of recognising the significantly different ‘catchment areas’ for each type of library.

7 The questionnaire and its recruitment materials were only distributed in English, which may suppress this figure to some degree.

8 Seven percent of respondents spontaneously reported currently or previously working in libraries and/or teaching and related fields. A further study would be required to explore how their professional expertise and experiences inform and shape their practices as street librarians.

9 The exact criteria used to classify inappropriate books for removal is personal. In the focus groups, examples of books were often cited as illustrations of books that might be removed (for example, the erotic Fifty Shades of Grey novel was cited on more than one occasion), rather than the type of more precise criteria that might guide professional librarians. Unlike the Little Free Library organisation, Street Library Incorporated does not provide guidance on collection management (Street Library Incorporated, n.d. b).

10 This estimate was created through a remote visual inspection of registered street libraries using the Google Street View tool. Where the location of registered libraries could be identified using this tool (1,031 street libraries), it was possible to determine if the library was still in its original location and compare the date of registration (as the assumed establishment date) with the date of the Google image. This allowed a decline over a five-year period to be calculated, and then a longer-term projection to be made including an upper and lower confidence boundary at ten years (59.1% and 48.9% respectively).

11 Note the two studies employed different collection methods: CATI for the original social capital study, online questionnaire for the street library study.

12 This book value was determined by taking the average value of 1,000 random books from the Brotherhood of St Laurence second hand book sales website (https://www.brotherhoodbooks.org.au) (excluding antiquarian books). To create a conservative estimate, this average was quartered, as the Brotherhood report that ‘dedicated volunteers sort, clean and price high-quality donated books’, and thus the quality of books sold via this service might be higher on average than those passing through street libraries.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter John Chen

Dr Peter John Chen is a senior lecturer in Government and International Relations at the University of Sydney.