One of the downfalls of cell phone use is the fact that payphones are dying. They keep charging more and more, and the number of available pay phones shrinks by the day. When British Telecom wanted to take away the iconic red phone booth in the southern England town of Westbury-sub-Mendip, the locals sprang into action. Now that rescued phone booth has become one of the smallest libraries in the world, and it’s all voluntary.
The Westbury-sub-Mendip library is open 24 hours a day and has a light inside for midnight browsing. The selection of 100 books, CDs, and DVDs comes entirely from the private libraries of the townsfolk. They bring in books they’ve read and swap them out for books they haven’t read. Periodically, checks are made to see what products are moving and what aren’t. The books everyone’s read get shipped off to the charity shop and replaced with new books. It’s kind of like the library you have in your town, except more efficient and significantly more compact.
Tags: libraries, world’s smallest library, library in a phone booth, England, Westbury-sub-Mendip, recycled phone booth