Last updated on September 6, 2018
Jamaica Plain loves it’s Little Free Libraries and a local JP resident created a Google Map pinpointing where many of the free book depositories are located around the neighborhood. People are also welcome to add locations of Little Free Libraries not shown on the map.
View and add libraries to the Google Map of Little Free Libraries in Jamaica Plain here.
“Every time I passed one on the street, I’d always think that it would be cool to have a map showing where all of them were — I had a general sense that there were a lot, but wanted to be able to quantify that,” said Hillary Corbett to Jamaica Plain News, a librarian at Northeastern University. “I think the map can be used in a bunch of different ways — at least one person has mentioned that she has a lot of books to share and plans to use the map to spread them around to different LFLs in the neighborhood. The map also gives a nice sense of how book-friendly JP is — yes, there is a certain trendiness about setting up an LFL, but I’d like to think that the people who do so are also booklovers as well as community-minded people.”
There are more than 50,000 Little Free Libraries (LFLs) across the world. People can register LFLs through littlefreelibrary.org and receive a charter number and charter sign for their LFL. Ironically, as Corbett points out, it costs $40 to register a LFL.
There are four JP LFLs listed on the official LFL website. Corbett’s map, as of Feb. 20, shows 21 LFLs, and there are more out there — so people are encouraged to add libraries not shown on the map.
Corbett said she decided to finally make the map after she noticed an LFL on South Huntington Avenue, which many people would never know about because it’s on the outskirts of JP. She added that as a librarian she’s always interested in “increasing the ‘discoverability’ of books and information.”
As for her favorite LFLs, she loves the one across from the Jamaica Plain Branch Library atop a utility box on South Street. “It’s had several incarnations over the years — I’m not sure if it was the first one but it was definitely one of the earliest, so I like it because of its longevity. I also like the one on Pond Street — it’s probably the one I pass the most frequently.”
Photos provided by Sacred Harbor Photography
See more Jamaica Plain News coverage of Little Free Libraries:
Little Library Boom in JP is Part of World-Wide Trend
Is Someone ‘Stealing’ Books From JP’s Little Free Libraries??
What the Cluck? Someone Put a Whole Raw Chicken in Little Free Library
