You want a little library? You’ve got to earn it.

Little Free Library is a precious little project designed to “promote literacy, the love of reading, and building a sense of community” by erecting birdhouse-sized “libraries” where people can steal (“borrow”) or dump (“donate”) books. It’s basically just like the real library, except the selection is worse, there are no computers or homeless people, the books are probably wet from the last rain, and it’s much more susceptible to complete destruction when drunk drivers run into it.

The library pictured above is in a pretty little flower garden in Algiers. The Little Free Library has donated one other little free library (as opposed to those big for-profit libraries that the city runs?) to New Orleans, and has left it up to the city’s denizens to argue over where it should go. They’re accepting essays of 600 words or fewer explaining “Why I want a Little Free Library and what it would do for my neighborhood.”

Entrants should include their name, address, phone number, and email address at the top of the letter.

Due date: April 1.

Email: nolalibrary@yahoo.com

Non-e-mail:
Little Free Library Contest
P. O. Box 6026
New Orleans, LA 70174

The winner will receive the Little Free Library and a $20 gift certificate to the Latter Library book sale.

Room 220 suggested locations:

The neutral ground on St. Claude in front of the Family Dollar

The neutral ground on N. Broad St. in front of McHardy’s Chicken & Fixin

The yard of the original Treehouse on Claiborne and Esplanade, where it can be used during their periodical Really, Really Free Markets

The backyard of St. Louis Cathedral, so it can cast a slightly friendlier shadow beside the really creepy one of Jesus that’s projected at night

The top of the Superdome

On the Mississippi River ferry, so people can have something to read while they cross

In front of the shuttered Borders location

Bourbon Street