Little Free Libraries: an examination of micro-urbanist interventions

Abstract

Micro-urban interventions at the smallest scales represent a challenge for planners concerned with social justice and urban theory. This paper seeks to contribute to the understanding of micro-urbanism through an exploration of the Little Free Library phenomenon. Two case studies in Madison, Wisconsin and Santa Ana, California provide data for a combined quantitative and qualitative analysis that together support a complicated view of the phenomenon and offer insights into urban theory. In particular, the article proposes that Little Free Libraries represent micro-urbanist actions, which can be analyzed according to a theoretical terrain that often blurs the boundaries between “do-it-yourself,” tactical, and guerrilla urbanism. Our research supports the view that micro-urban interventions can take on different forms as either a grassroots contribution to resolving urban problems or a bottom-up effort reinforcing existing and developing spatial inequities.

Keywords:

• Little Free Libraries
• micro-urbanism
• DIY urbanism
• tactical urbanism
• guerrilla urbanism
• neighborhood planning

Acknowledgments

The authors acknowledge Phin Hanson and Amanda Hower for their assistance. We are also grateful to Rich Brooks, the staff at Little Free Libraries and the Santa Ana LFL community.

Notes

1. Other park occupations have produced libraries as well including Taksim Gezi Parki in Istanbul in 2013 as noted in a Hürriyet Daily News article on June 4, 2013, “Publishing houses to unite in Gezi Park to distribute major resistance material: Books”.

2. Bol had the short-term goals of stopping traffic providing a memorial to his mother, a schoolteacher.