World's Smallest Library: Telephone Box-turned-Book Exchange

The village of Westbury-sub-Mendip (population 800), in Somerset, UK, has shown that, once again, necessity is the mother of invention. When the mobile library stopped visiting the village square and the village's traditional red phone box was decommissioned, Westbury-sub-Mendip local Janet Fisher came up with the idea of turning the box into a mini-library. There are loads of articles and pictures of the library online, but perhaps new BookCrosser Andrew-B (the box is 8 meters from his kitchen window) captures it best, " When we started it we had no idea it would catch people's imagination like it has ... One of the great things about our phone box library is that it's open 24 hours a day 365 days a year — perfect for insomniac readers!" And, it stays open in all kinds of weather. The library is also almost carbon neutral : the electricity for the box's night light is offset by monetary contributions to energy efficiency schemes in the developing world. If you wish to send a book to the library, contact by Andrew-B private message. "We've only got 3.6 meters of shelf space [it is very small!]. So please understand if I delay putting books you send us onto the shelves until we have space- or have a moment to weed out the titles that aren't moving."

Many thanks to earthcaroleanne, Kathmeista, and all the members who posted in the forum for calling attention to this gem of a community library and to Andrew-B for the photograph. The release zone for the library is United Kingdom -> Somerset -> Westbury-sub-Mendip -> Telephone Box Library.