Have you ever thought of using pay phone booths as libraries? If not, you might get a chance of seeing them for real. Architect John Locke has conceived the idea of changing New York City pay phone booths into guerilla libraries. According to New York City sidewalk estimates, there are 13,659 pay phones. Architect John has till now changed two pay phone booths into guerilla libraries on an experimental basis.
The first installation done by John was at a remote block and was not successful because no instruction were provided about the use of pop up libraries, which resulted in the loss of all books. The second pop up library was installed near a subway entrance and it was quite successful.
John’s main motive behind installing these pop up libraries is to generate more interest among city people to read. It will also help city commuters to use the unused pay phones booths as libraries. The local commuters can take any unknown title from the pay phone booth libraries and can return them within a few days with any of their own books. These pop up libraries have been really appreciated by the city commuters till now, which has motivated the architect to convert more pay phone booths into libraries.
Books used in the pop up libraries are either donated or few of them are from John’s personal collection. This system is supposed to foster community activities pertaining to reading and sharing of books. Their future is yet to be determined and hopefully we will see a successful installation of such libraries across New York.
Via: Atlanticcities
