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Short Stuff: Alternative Libraries · Stuff You Should Know

• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Hey, and welcome to the short Stuff. I'm Josh, and
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: there's chalk and we're sitting in for day today and
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: this is short stuff.
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  Speaker 2: That's right, and we are here today to talk about
• 0:13
  Speaker 2: This is sort of a two parter in one about
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  Speaker 2: I'm just calling this all to libraries as an alternative libraries.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: Sure.
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  Speaker 2: One reason is because I was on a walk the
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  Speaker 2: other day and we have quite a few little free
• 0:25
  Speaker 2: libraries in our neighborhood and they are all super cute.
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  Speaker 2: If you don't know what we're talking about, little boxes,
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  Speaker 2: usually in the shape of a house, or it could
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  Speaker 2: be a doghouse, or it could be a literal library
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  Speaker 2: or schoolhouse, just some sort of small housey type structure
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  Speaker 2: with a little clear door, and inside are our books
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  Speaker 2: that you can take a book, you can take a
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  Speaker 2: couple of books, you can leave a book. And it's
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  Speaker 2: just one of the great things. And I grabbed one.
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  Speaker 2: I usually don't even look at them that much because
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: I just have too many books I'm behind on already,
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  Speaker 2: but I one popped up in my peripheral vision that
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  Speaker 2: would be perfect for Ruby. So I grabbed it, and
• 1:02
  Speaker 2: she's reading it and loving it, and so I thought
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  Speaker 2: we should do a little ode to alt libraries like this.
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  Speaker 1: What was the book.
• 1:12
  Speaker 2: I can't remember, the Last Kids on Earth or something
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  Speaker 2: like that.
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  Speaker 1: Well, that sounds good.
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  Speaker 2: That may not be the title, but that's sort of
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  Speaker 2: the premise.
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  Speaker 1: Is she she might be told for this, but maybe not.
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  Speaker 1: Has she ever read any of the scary stories to
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  Speaker 1: tell in the Dark books?
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  Speaker 2: I don't think. And it is actually called The Last
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  Speaker 2: Kids on Earth. It looks like it's a series. No,
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  Speaker 2: that sounds like something right, a p rally though.
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  Speaker 1: Okay, go to eBay and find whatever editions came out
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: in the eighties. Okay, because they have some of the
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  Speaker 1: greatest illustrations ever that made everything so much more unsettling.
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  Speaker 1: You have to get those watercolor illustrations or else. Don't
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  Speaker 1: even bother.
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  Speaker 2: I'm looking at them now and they are terrifying.
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  Speaker 1: They are. It's so great. I remember being a kid
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  Speaker 1: and just being like, this is so great. I feel
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  Speaker 1: so alive.
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  Speaker 2: Thanks for the wreck.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, there's also more scary stories of Tonnel in Dark
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  Speaker 1: pretty much equally good.
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  Speaker 2: So maybe we should flip it and start with little
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  Speaker 2: Free your Libraries. Since I mentioned that one first as Inspirado,
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: but in twenty nine how the story goes, and this
• 2:17
  Speaker 2: is straight from their website. A man named Todd Bowle
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  Speaker 2: from Wisconsin, Hudson, Wisconsin started it all when he built
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  Speaker 2: a little model of a schoolhouse, of a little one
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  Speaker 2: room schoolhouse, is a tribute to his mom, who's a teacher,
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  Speaker 2: put it on a post, put some books in it,
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  Speaker 2: and said, hey, everyone, if you want a book, take one.
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  Speaker 2: If you want to drop one off, that'd be great too,
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  Speaker 2: And it was a big hit.
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  Speaker 1: It was a huge hit. Actually, So apparently Andrew Carnegie
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  Speaker 1: funded I believe twenty five hundred plus. For some reason,
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  Speaker 1: everybody says twenty five hundred and eight, so I'm guessing
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  Speaker 1: that's the number public libraries around the turn of the
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  Speaker 1: last century or early last century, and there's still plenty
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  Speaker 1: around that. He essentially partnered with whatever local government and
• 3:04
  Speaker 1: said I'll give you a bunch of money, or I'll
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  Speaker 1: throw in half or something like that, and that was
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  Speaker 1: one of the big pieces of philanthropy he was known for.
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  Speaker 1: So I guess Todd bowl and Rick Brooks said let's
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  Speaker 1: try to see if we can make twenty five hundred
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  Speaker 1: and eight of these things by the end of twenty thirteen,
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  Speaker 1: which was a couple of years after they started, and
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  Speaker 1: they just blew that goal out of the water.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. Rich Brooks was the guy, like he said, he
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  Speaker 2: partnered with He actually retired from the which is now
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  Speaker 2: NGO in twenty fourteen, but he, you know, there were
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  Speaker 2: pals and he thought it was a great idea, and
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  Speaker 2: again inspired by Carnegie, they set out to start building
• 3:43
  Speaker 2: these by twenty ten. So in twenty nine is when
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  Speaker 2: the first one was built. By twenty ten, it was
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  Speaker 2: like an established thing that was happening. They started to
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  Speaker 2: give them away. They had charter signs if it was
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  Speaker 2: an official one engraved with a charter number, and it
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  Speaker 2: just people were into it and they start, you know,
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  Speaker 2: you see one of these things in your neighborhood. I
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  Speaker 2: remember when I saw the first one, I was like, wow,
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  Speaker 2: that's an incredible idea. And it felt like within that
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  Speaker 2: year we had like six or seven more.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I remember the first time I saw when I
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  Speaker 1: didn't get the concept. So I kind of brought it
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  Speaker 1: down a book that I wanted, and so I looked
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  Speaker 1: around to make sure no one was looking, and put
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  Speaker 1: it in my jacket and ran off really quick.
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  Speaker 2: Thought you got a bunch of books and you sold
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  Speaker 2: money bay.
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  Speaker 1: No, I just took one and sold it on eBay. Yeah, eventually.
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  Speaker 1: But I said that when they started, they wanted to
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  Speaker 1: make twenty five hundred and eight of these things within
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  Speaker 1: a couple of years. They ended up surpassing that with
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  Speaker 1: a year and a half left before their goal date,
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  Speaker 1: and they just kept going from there. Apparently, Chuck, here's
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  Speaker 1: some mind boggling numbers for you. So they started into
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  Speaker 1: two thousand and nine. In twenty twenty two, there were
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  Speaker 1: more than one hundred and fifty thousand Little Free Library
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  Speaker 1: credible across the world, in one hundred and twenty different countries.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. I did not know it had gone international until
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  Speaker 2: I started doing this research. It's just incredible, Like I said,
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  Speaker 2: Brooks retired in twenty fourteen. Someone actually wrote in twenty
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  Speaker 2: fifteen a woman named Margaret. Oh, she's a pretty famous author. Actually,
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  Speaker 2: Margaret Aldrich wrote the Little Free Library book. So all
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  Speaker 2: of a sudden, it's like launching books in and of itself.
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  Speaker 2: They got in twenty fourteen that same year the Library
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  Speaker 2: of Congress Literacy Award. Just like people are lauding it.
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  Speaker 2: People are building these things like crazy, and it's just
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  Speaker 2: become one of the cool things that the you know,
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  Speaker 2: started here in the US and then spread all over
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  Speaker 2: the place. Very sadly, in twenty eighteen, Todd Bowle passed
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  Speaker 2: away from pancreatic cancer after the launch of their seventy
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  Speaker 2: five thousandth at the time Little Free Library, and he
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  Speaker 2: was working for them up until the end and has
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  Speaker 2: a great quote, I really believe in a little free
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  Speaker 2: library on every block and a book in every hand.
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  Speaker 2: I believe people can fix their neighborhoods, fix their communities,
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  Speaker 2: develop systems of sharing, learn from each other, and see
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  Speaker 2: that they have a better place in this planet to live.
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  Speaker 1: Very sweet. That's a great last interview quote.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, pretty awesome.
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  Speaker 1: All right, Well, let's take a break and we'll come
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  Speaker 1: back and talk about a different kind of alt library
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  Speaker 1: after this stop Stop put the stop show, okay, Chuck.
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  Speaker 1: So we already talked about little free libraries, which anybody
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  Speaker 1: can make. And if you want some tips, like we said,
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  Speaker 1: go check out the Little Free Library book. If you
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  Speaker 1: saw that in a little free library, wouldn't the universe
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  Speaker 1: is collapse in on itself.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. You can also donate to them, of course.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, it's that kind of give a book take a
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  Speaker 1: book thing. I don't know if we spelled it out
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  Speaker 1: or if we needed to, but that's the premise of it, right.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah.
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  Speaker 1: Another thing was called the Human Library, and this was
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  Speaker 1: the result of a couple of who I take to
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: be artists, brothers, Ronnie Abergail and Danny Abergil. They yeah,
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  Speaker 1: they for a festival in Denmark about the year two thousand.
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  Speaker 1: They created the Human Library. In Danish, they call it
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  Speaker 1: menesque BiblioTech it but all one word.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, BiblioTech is that's in a lot of languages, right.
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  Speaker 1: Sure, but you add the et to the end and
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  Speaker 1: you got Danish, that's right. So they what they created
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  Speaker 1: with this human Library was the concept that the books
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  Speaker 1: were human beings, and they were human beings that people
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  Speaker 1: might want to get information from. So there were human
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  Speaker 1: beings who were typically look down upon, mistreated, had different
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  Speaker 1: experiences from the mainstream. So you had like books that
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  Speaker 1: were trans people, unhoused people, people from different races, and
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  Speaker 1: you can check out one of these books, this human book,
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  Speaker 1: and hang out with them and ask them whatever question
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  Speaker 1: you want, and then you take them back and check
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  Speaker 1: out another one.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah. It's sort of part performance art, part ted talking
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  Speaker 2: away just kind of referring to them as books, as
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  Speaker 2: was the hook I think, and obviously something to you know,
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  Speaker 2: draw attention to their cause, which is very noble. I
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  Speaker 2: think it started out as a small festival and I
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  Speaker 2: think it ran eight hours a day for over four
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  Speaker 2: days initially with fifty human books available, and now it
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  Speaker 2: is an international thing. They have human libraries in Asia, Africa, Australia,
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  Speaker 2: both of the Americas and Europe.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah. I thought this is kind of cute too. So
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  Speaker 1: if you're a volunteer as a book, you go through
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  Speaker 1: a vetting process and then they teach you how to
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  Speaker 1: do this and they call that getting published. And then
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  Speaker 1: once you're published, you can be checked out. And the
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  Speaker 1: rules for readers are that you respect the book, be curious,
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  Speaker 1: bring the book back on time and in the same condition.
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  Speaker 1: I'm keeping this book if you read between the lines.
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  Speaker 1: I think bring it back in the same condition means
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  Speaker 1: that they don't want any pages stuck together with a booker.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, don't make your book to your dishes, don't put
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  Speaker 2: your book to work. That's not what this is about.
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  Speaker 1: Well, luckily, the book can end the loan anytime they want,
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  Speaker 1: like if things go pear shaped they can be like,
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  Speaker 1: I'm taking myself back to the library.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, just stamp my forehead so I can leave, right.
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  Speaker 1: They also have mobile libraries called book depots. The headquarters
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  Speaker 1: for this that it just carried on for the last
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  Speaker 1: couple of decades. It's headquartered in Copenhagen, but they have
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  Speaker 1: mobile libraries and I guess they just go round up
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  Speaker 1: the books and they're like, sorry, you're you're published. They'll
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  Speaker 1: come in with us on the road for a little while.
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  Speaker 2: Yeah, you can also like book a group of books
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  Speaker 2: or you know, check out a group of books at
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  Speaker 2: one time. Like a company can do this, and companies
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  Speaker 2: have done this. They'll you know, it's something that companies do.
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  Speaker 2: They'll bring in like guest speakers and stuff, and in
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  Speaker 2: this case they're doing it in the form of human books.
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  Speaker 2: They'll bring in a few different people to bring in
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  Speaker 2: to talk about, you know, things that again just sort
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  Speaker 2: of like an individual would like, hey, let's bring in
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  Speaker 2: some people that maybe don't even work on our field,
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  Speaker 2: but might enlighten you to some diverse topics and people
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  Speaker 2: and ways of thinking. So like Microsoft and Eli, Lilly
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  Speaker 2: and other brands have gotten together to kind of do
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  Speaker 2: this over the years.
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  Speaker 1: Yes, and I think invariably at all of those events
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  Speaker 1: there's at least one person who raises their hand and says, so, wait,
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  Speaker 1: this is just Q and.
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  Speaker 2: A, right, Like, I don't get it.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: What's the library thing? I don't Yeah, I'm totally confused. Yeah,
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  Speaker 1: and they probably don't get very much out of the
• 11:07
  Speaker 1: experience exactly.
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  Speaker 2: Those people never do. But yeah, it's just sort of
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  Speaker 2: a fun hook. I like stuff like this. Some people
• 11:13
  Speaker 2: might say it's silly go through notebooks are just people
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  Speaker 2: and it's just a Q and A. But I encourage
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: people like that to sort of broaden their horizons, think
• 11:20
  Speaker 2: outside the old box a little bit and CTFD.
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  Speaker 1: Yeah, just make sure that the person you're dragging off
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: to be checked out is a published book. And that's
• 11:31
  Speaker 1: some rando.
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: No, you don't want to do that. Hey, you're coming
• 11:34
  Speaker 2: with me. That's called kid that's called kidnapping.
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: Right, you got anything else?
• 11:39
  Speaker 2: I got nothing else. Support Little Free Library, support the
• 11:42
  Speaker 2: Human Book Project.
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: And support all libraries too.
• 11:46
  Speaker 2: Yeah, those are great.
• 11:47
  Speaker 1: Also, short stuff is.
• 11:49
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• 11:55
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