I appreciate a dear friend sending this fascinating article, “6 of the World’s Most Unusual Libraries” because with a manuscript deadline of May 29th to finish Books Afloat’s sequel, Strong Currents, and just returning from Mississippi to Minnesota, I’m late blogging. =
Because its similar to my Books Afloat idea, I love the library ship Epos that brought books to people along Norway’s fjords until Covid ended that in 2020. Here’s hoping it can resume.
Equally wonderful is the biblioburro where a teacher in northern Colombia renamed two burros Alfa and Beto (Alphabet in Spanish) to pack books to local elementary schools. Many years ago, my younger son and I spent 3.5 months in rural Colombia teaching students in remote jungle schools (and eating piranhas instead of them eating us). Saludos to this innovative, dedicated Colombian teacher.
A Kenya National Library Service program used camels (ships of the desert) for over 20 years to bring books to northeastern nomadic desert communities. Today they’re mostly replaced by motor bikes.
Coastal resorts in France host Lire à la Plage (“Reading at the Beach”). Visitors may not remove books from the locale, but may read while sunning and viewing seascapes. Several other nations and continents are adopting the practice.
Chained libraries began in England to secure rare reference books and still continue mainly in cathedral cities. The oldest chained book dates to the eighth century in Hereford Cathedral.
Horses have long been used by librarians in rural Appalachia. Bookmobiles are a thing with 18 percent of them operating in rural areas.
Here’s the full link: https://www.interestingfacts.com/unusual-libraries/YlTLjlm3LQAHz-YL
My favorites are the boats, camels, and burros. What are yours? Or suggest other wonderful ways to carry books to eager readers.
Wow! I never even thought of all these possible book carriers. The world is just full of good people reading good books. Thanks for sharing this information.
Thank you for reading and commenting. I appreciate you!