Review by Liz Dexter
This attractive and heavily illustrated book covers fifty unusual libraries from around the world. Informative and rich, it celebrates libraries of all kinds, from mobile ones to ancient ones, ones run by organisations to ones run by a single person, ones that are still going and a few that have sadly disappeared. I was pleased to see there is good global coverage, with South America, Asia and Africa being represented by a decent number of entries each.
The Foreword is by the beloved and famous librarian, Nancy Pearl, and then each library is given a two-double-page spread, including where to find it (or where it was if it has subsequently closed), glossy photos and text explaining it in detail. There’s certainly enough wordcount here to make it more than just a coffee table book.
A theme I noticed and greatly enjoyed was the range of mobile libraries featured, borne (here) on donkeys, bicycle carts, horses, camels (now replaced by motorcycles), three-wheeler vans and more traditional library vans. The more static but still mostly untraditional locations range from a Little Free Library at the South Pole to the International Space Station, via beaches, airports, the very first phone box library and people’s own homes. Many are run by volunteers and several have social justice principles underlying their provision and use, helping to develop literacy or record and gather Black history, for example.
The virtual Banned Books Library is a clever last stop on this wonderful tour. Most booky people would be delighted to find this in the birthday or other celebration present pile, I’d imagine!
Liz Dexter does like a library: hers is all too unhidden. She blogs about reading, running and working from home at https://www.librofulltime.wordpress.com.
D.C. Helmuth, Hidden Libraries (Lonely Planet, 2024). 978-1837582723, 208 pp., col. ill. hardback.
BUY at Blackwell’s via our affiliate link (free UK P&P)
