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Little Free Library caches


beauxeault

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Swear I have done at least 10 of these in Washington.

 

Here is one I remember for sure. No bookmarks are attached to it of just those so none exist publicly for this area.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC48CYW_where-to-look

 

Remembered one in British Columbia.

 

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4D0DG_the-book-exchange?guid=8a9225e6-4077-4e96-b860-7fa1287f2b6d

 

Remembered another one in Washington

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC49GFT_take-one-leave-one

 

And I think I have tested my memory enough. One more.

http://www.geocaching.com/geocache/GC4G0CR_keep-reading?guid=3befa3ff-f134-4989-a1ec-154dd6d08e0e

Edited by lamoracke
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Swear I have done at least 10 of these in Washington.

 

 

I have NEVER done one. I'll say I've only seen a handful of these little free libraries, period.

 

So of those caches, are most in established little free libraries? As opposed to Geocachers going out and buying one and putting it on their property?

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I have NEVER done one. I'll say I've only seen a handful of these little free libraries, period.

 

So of those caches, are most in established little free libraries? As opposed to Geocachers going out and buying one and putting it on their property?

 

I came across a little free library in a park near my house, thought it was a nice spot for a cute cache. So I put a logbook in the library, put a book "title" on it, and the book went missing after less than 24 hours. I put another book out and it's been there for the last month or so. If it goes missing again I'll hide a bison or something similar in the libraries "rafters".

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Swear I have done at least 10 of these in Washington.

 

 

I have NEVER done one. I'll say I've only seen a handful of these little free libraries, period.

 

So of those caches, are most in established little free libraries? As opposed to Geocachers going out and buying one and putting it on their property?

 

With the exception of one, perhaps one I pasted, they were all inside. Most are in the upstairs little recessed area or a separate book, or in the back tucked away in the corner. I swear at least one of them the cache container recessed area was built and customized for just the geocache. I have a feeling a couple of these I have done the owner of the cache and the library is the same person.

Edited by lamoracke
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I have NEVER done one. I'll say I've only seen a handful of these little free libraries, period.

 

So of those caches, are most in established little free libraries? As opposed to Geocachers going out and buying one and putting it on their property?

 

I came across a little free library in a park near my house, thought it was a nice spot for a cute cache. So I put a logbook in the library, put a book "title" on it, and the book went missing after less than 24 hours. I put another book out and it's been there for the last month or so. If it goes missing again I'll hide a bison or something similar in the libraries "rafters".

The one I did the log book was in a garden book from the 80's and was tethered to the inside of the library, clearly with permission of the library owner.

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I'll hide a bison or something similar in the libraries "rafters".

The Library in a local park has a steel roof, and plenty of space among the "rafters" for a box held with magnets. I crafted a cache box that wasn't waterproof (I'm thinking it's not necessary to be waterproof in that case), and wrote to the local park enhancement group who helped set up that Library. They don't maintain it (they're just like Geocachers! :anitongue:), and they don't reply to email (:anitongue:). So anyway, I eventually discovered that the Little Free Library is no good with cache separation to another cache. That metal roof could hide a rather large container, although I guess the construction is different on each one. So the hide style would be different depending on the Library.

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For how small the town that I live in is, I was surprised to see that there are three Little Free Libraries here. So far, no one has incorporated them into caches, though. I've been toying with setting up a Wherigo using the libraries as waypoints but would really like to have at least one more LFL to make it more complete. Three (plus the main library) just seems kind of skimpy.

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For how small the town that I live in is, I was surprised to see that there are three Little Free Libraries here. So far, no one has incorporated them into caches, though. I've been toying with setting up a Wherigo using the libraries as waypoints but would really like to have at least one more LFL to make it more complete. Three (plus the main library) just seems kind of skimpy.

 

It looks like the Little Free Library website can't figure out the new Google Maps API, and their maps are "old", but I was surprised to see 7 or 8 within 10 miles of my house. None in parks or anything, mostly private residences, with 2 in community gardens. The good thing is they all list a phone number and/or an email address for the caretaker. I might look into the closest one to home, at a private residence, but I'm going to check it out first, to make sure it's not in the backyard or anything (which the pin on the map says it is). I would make it a PMO cache. No muggles with apps need apply. :ph34r:

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I own a Little Free Library. I can't believe I didn't think to put a cache in it. This requires further thought.

You could make something extremely cool, if you're good at construction. Add a feature that nomuggle thinks to mess with, but where cachers can get the log just fine. The local LFL here is kind of a toybox, unfortunately. Bored kids play with it. The books are removed, and all over the ground, soaking wet, or torn up on the picnic tables. It was not a good placement. But a LFL that is actually used as a book trading box, would offer more possibilities. The most obvious idea would be to disguise a cache as a book. There might be places where that would work fine.

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I own a Little Free Library. I can't believe I didn't think to put a cache in it. This requires further thought.

You could make something extremely cool, if you're good at construction. Add a feature that nomuggle thinks to mess with, but where cachers can get the log just fine. The local LFL here is kind of a toybox, unfortunately. Bored kids play with it. The books are removed, and all over the ground, soaking wet, or torn up on the picnic tables. It was not a good placement. But a LFL that is actually used as a book trading box, would offer more possibilities. The most obvious idea would be to disguise a cache as a book. There might be places where that would work fine.

 

There's a LFL just around corner from me but there isn't a cache in it. I'm on a neighborhood mailing list and the owner of the LFL posted a couple of weeks ago that it had been vandalized. It's back in action and they replaced all the books this week with halloween/horror themed books.

 

 

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I own a Little Free Library. I can't believe I didn't think to put a cache in it. This requires further thought.

You could make something extremely cool, if you're good at construction. Add a feature that nomuggle thinks to mess with, but where cachers can get the log just fine. The local LFL here is kind of a toybox, unfortunately. Bored kids play with it. The books are removed, and all over the ground, soaking wet, or torn up on the picnic tables. It was not a good placement. But a LFL that is actually used as a book trading box, would offer more possibilities. The most obvious idea would be to disguise a cache as a book. There might be places where that would work fine.

 

The roof area of mine is hollow, which might just be perfect. Otherwise I could wire in a logbook with a note on it. Disguising it as a book would probably mean the book goes home with someone (unless it's the biography of Tammy Faye Baker which I ended up removing as no one seemed to want it.)

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The roof area of mine is hollow, which might just be perfect. Otherwise I could wire in a logbook with a note on it. Disguising it as a book would probably mean the book goes home with someone (unless it's the biography of Tammy Faye Baker which I ended up removing as no one seemed to want it.)
Tethering the fake-book geocache could work. I've also seen a fake-book geocache that was structurally part of the LFL, physically attached to the shelf.
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The roof area of mine is hollow, which might just be perfect. Otherwise I could wire in a logbook with a note on it. Disguising it as a book would probably mean the book goes home with someone (unless it's the biography of Tammy Faye Baker which I ended up removing as no one seemed to want it.)
Tethering the fake-book geocache could work. I've also seen a fake-book geocache that was structurally part of the LFL, physically attached to the shelf.

 

The series I posted earlier uses check-out cards & sleeves as the log sheet. It fits perfectly with the library theme.

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I guess I can spoil it :) it's a big "dictionary" book safe on a shelf in the LFL(blends right in), and it's going to be tethered now that the ribbon cutting event is over. The logbook is a little book itself, like a diary. The swag(was)is book themed-a journal, etc. It's in a very public place which may help, and the town has really embraced it so far. For now, there are 2 different labels on the container saying not to take it(one says "for reference only-do not remove" since it's a "dictionary", and one similar label on the shelf.

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I guess I can spoil it :) it's a big "dictionary" book safe on a shelf in the LFL(blends right in), and it's going to be tethered now that the ribbon cutting event is over. The logbook is a little book itself, like a diary. The swag(was)is book themed-a journal, etc. It's in a very public place which may help, and the town has really embraced it so far. For now, there are 2 different labels on the container saying not to take it(one says "for reference only-do not remove" since it's a "dictionary", and one similar label on the shelf.

 

That's a beauty of a LFL. 3 shelves is a very generous size.

 

The one LFL/geocache that I found had the untethered logbook go missing 3 times. It was missing when I found it. People started writing their trailname and date on the inside of the LFL. I have a sneaking suspicion that the geocache owner is not the owner of the LFL. If so, I wonder how the LFL owner feels about their library being written on. Tethering the book safe makes a lot of sense. I also like the idea of a tethered logbook because people trading books could leave a message as well, thanking the owner and recording what they left and what they took.

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I have a sneaking suspicion that the geocache owner is not the owner of the LFL. If so, I wonder how the LFL owner feels about their library being written on.

Great point. Many "Little Free Libraries" are not owned by the cache owner, and are located on private property. Permission for the cache placement is especially important, and so is the establishment of some sort of fixed logsheet or logbook. Hiders of Little Free Library caches might be quizzed on these issues during the cache review process, so covering them upfront would be very helpful.

Edited by Keystone
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Thanks-we hope no one marks anything on our nice wood shelves! I wouldn't be happy if a cacher put their own cache into my LFL without permission, either. It'd be much less offensive if they signed a slip of paper or whatever. It's too bad that the LFL site doesn't support logging/comments because we'd love to know what non-cachers think... however, because there are trackables in ours, we don't want muggles opening the safe. I thought about putting a separate notepad but figured it would confuse people. It's odd-they use your regular email address on their site so it's not like there's a "contact me" link.

 

I'm using nylon coated stainless steel with crimps on either end-it'll be drilled into the metal of the safe as a tether.

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8 hours ago, Sanders_Sooners said:

I know this thread is a couple years old.  Posting a couple more Little Free Library caches to the list:  

GC6EGHH 
GC6EGKY 
GC6EGN5 
GC6EJ10 
GC6EPTX 

Recommend Groundspeak adding a Little Free Library attribute to help search for them.

Why? Aren't Little Free Library caches just traditionals? 

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11 hours ago, SeattleWayne said:

Why? Aren't Little Free Library caches just traditionals? 

Right, Library caches are traditionals.  I'm not saying create a new type of cache designation, just add an attribute.  The thread originally started because someone wanted to make a list of Little Free Library caches and an attribute would be helpful in running pocket queries.    Similar to looking for specific attributes like "tree climbing", "front yard", or "recommended for kids" can be traditional caches.

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24 minutes ago, Sanders_Sooners said:
12 hours ago, SeattleWayne said:

Why? Aren't Little Free Library caches just traditionals? 

Right, Library caches are traditionals.  I'm not saying create a new type of cache designation, just add an attribute.  The thread originally started because someone wanted to make a list of Little Free Library caches and an attribute would be helpful in running pocket queries.    Similar to looking for specific attributes like "tree climbing", "front yard", or "recommended for kids" can be traditional caches.

Personally,  I think creating an attribute for variations on traditional isn't the best approach.  I'd rather see the ability to "tag" cache listings with a controlled vocabulary of keywords/phrases and instead of just being able to search title which contains a phrase, the title, long and short description, text representation of attributes, and keywords are all indexed for searching.

 

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When something like that comes up, a good idea may be to start a bookmark list of caches that match. If there's no unified 'tagging' system for styles of caches, lists are the next best public thing. Not universal, but at least if people start doing that proactively themselves, then someone could look at a listing and see that it's in someone's list of "Little Free Library Caches".  If you're really proactive, you could PQ and swallow up everyone else's lists regularly to keep one large amalgamated list far beyond your regular caching range.

If we had shared bookmark lists, that would be a great use case.

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I don't think an attribute for little library caches is a good idea. Where do you draw the line? Do church micros or railway station caches in the UK need a special attribute as those are popular to collect for some people? Usual pile of rocks caches out in the Middle Eastern desert? Supermarket parking places? I think bookmark lists are good enough.

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