LIBRARY IN A PHONEBOX UPDATE

Nearest public library: Great Shelford Library, 0.8 miles away Nearest public library: Truro Library, 5.3 miles away, fortnightly mobile libraryīooks, shelves: 150 books, 4 shelves, box for kids

LIBRARY IN A PHONEBOX UPDATE

Links: Apethorpe News (last status update in March 2011)īooks, shelves: 150 books, 5 shelves (only 4 usable) Nearest public library: Oundle Library, 6.1 miles away Nearest public library: Boroughbridge Library, 2.7 miles away Nearest public library: Bungay Library, 5.1 miles away, under threat of closure in January 2011īooks, shelves: 40 books, 5 shelves, box for kids

Links: Daily Mail, BBC, This is Somerset, Guardian Nearest public library: Wells Library, 4 miles away Not all of these have photos, nor have I visited more than a small fraction of them.īooks, shelves: 200 books, 4 shelves, kids box There is one in America, in Clinton, New York, where a K8 unit has been used to create a Book Booth along similar lines.īelow is a list of one hundred phone boxes that have been found across the UK, there may be many more. There are two phone box libraries in Wales (Paen-y-Coed and Brynberian), and one known of in Scotland (Kinnesswood). The area with the most seems to be Somerset where fourteen have been founded, although Cambridgeshire is doing well with eight. The earliest was established in late 2009, and the vast majority in 2011.

The Mary Sue has a strict comment policy that forbids, but is not limited to, personal insults toward anyone, hate speech, and trolling.The phone box libraries are on average 4.37 miles away from the nearest public library, although a couple are as far away as 12 miles, and a few are as near as a mile away. Want more stories like this? Become a subscriber and support the site! (via Boing Boing, image: Matt Cardy/Getty Images) It would help to know what titles were there, because I do think that reading Jane Eyre and unpacking the sexual politics of that book would be much harder than your average romance novel. I could understand wanting to make sure that hardcore pornographic material wasn’t there, but if it’s just a copy of the latest Alyssa Cole, then what is the harm being done? I don’t think they would be interested and would be turned off by the font size and lack of pictures. They are growing up with the internet in their hands and with a natural ability to navigate it. Once I was in my teens, I read Anne Rice’s smutty erotica novels.Ĭhildren now have access to these things even more than I did. I would say it was no more damaging than all the things I saw on television and media for my age group. Now was that a good thing? I don’t really know. Hell, I was writing it by the, and naturally, it was terrible.

I’d read smut DBZ fanfiction by the time I was twelve. Now, on the one hand, as a bad, feminist, child-free adult, I’m thinking of my own youth and easy access to the internet even in the late ’90s early 2000s. They didn’t find any Fifty Shades-like books at the location, but there were titles like Helen Fielding’s Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason and Patricia Highsmith’s Carol/ The Price of Salt.Īpparently, the culprit has been identified privately and “they aren’t very well thought of.”Īnyone who found “inappropriate” material in the library was told to throw it in the trash. The red phone box was purchased by the council back in 2019 and installed next to the village primary school, so it was a place that was very accessible to children. When The Advertiser, who originally reported the story, visited the library kiosk, they found a range of books “from classic literature such as Jane Eyre to works by modern authors such as Kate Atkinson and Ian Rankin.” “Please find another outlet for your collection.” And some of them are tall enough to reach the shelves where the books for grown-ups are.

“So if whoever is doing so is reading this, please don’t keep leaving inappropriate books – the majority of visitors to the phone box are children. “We love our red phone box library on Church Street … but we don’t love salacious adult literature being left in there. A village in England has been scandalized by their local phone box library being infiltrated by adult novels that are easily accessible to children.Īccording to the BBC, “ salacious” books were found in the phone box where people can borrow books, and “erotic” novels were left within reach of children.Ĭhairman Ian Kitson said the issue was “no laughing matter” after the Hurstbourne Tarrant Parish Council met to address this issue and shared the following statement:

Library in a phonebox