In across the RSS transom today came Rebecca Toh talking about her library. Not her personal library, but her Casual Poet Library, where people rent shelves to curate a collection of books for library members to borrow.

Rebecca, discussing the library as an act of community-building, because everything is:

But this library, as a community, is a little different. I think it’s got to do with the stake people have in it. Our volunteer librarians can shape how the library is run. Our bookshelf-owners alter the experience of the library every time they remove or add a book or a note to their shelf. We’re playing and creating together in real-time. Not only that, we have to work, and it’s this effortful, again, can’t-quite-put-your-finger-to-it thing of having to give of yourself, that creates a strong community.

In conversation with Toh Ee Ming for Mekong Review, which Rebecca posted in full in a followup post on her blog:

What has been the most unexpected or profound lesson you’ve learned from the community at Casual Poet Library?

At the Plum Village retreat I just went to, I asked people, “What brought you here?” Quite a few of them said, “Suffering.” I realised the library is the same—it’s suffering that brings people here. Suffering in the form of a hunger for connection, understanding, respite and renewal.

But this is the unexpected lesson I’ve learned, and it’s that our library is a microcosm of society. While there are many who come with needs, there are just as many who come ready to help and to give. Every day, I bear witness to this moving and beautiful exchange of energy.

More:

You’ve received messages from people around the world seeking to replicate Casual Poet Library in their own neighborhoods. What do you think is the universal appeal of this library, and what advice do you offer to those inspired by this model?

I think the library offers a fresh way to rethink one of our oldest problems—how to connect with other people. Having your own shelf means you get to share not just your books but also pieces of yourself. It’s like sending messages out into space. We don’t know who’s at the other end, but we’re hopeful. We’re also a little desperate because we don’t want to be alone in the universe. In the end, our oldest pain is disconnection. The universal appeal of Casual Poet Library is that it helps people alleviate some of that pain.

Over on Bluesky, I was imagining something like this cropping up in one of the many empty storefronts in downtown St. Johns (someone just put a long-vacant one up for lease, which is weird given all the ones already standing empty for a couple years or more), my neighborhood in Portland which sometimes is referred to as “a small town in the city”. Then I realized: while I do think that’s a terrific idea, it’s also something technically viable as a program run by the actual public library.

Imagine a corner of the renovated and expanded St. Johns Library (which, incidentally, is set to get new sculptures to “foster experiences, kinship, civic pride and echo the unique fabric of the […] neighborhood”) set aside for shelves curated by a rotating group of neighborhood residents, and even neighborhood businesses, too. Stop in and maybe you’ll see what the folks at Signal Station Pizza down the street think you should read, or the staff at St. Johns Cinema, or (surprise!) your secretive neighbors next door.

Someone should make this happen.

Originally published to bix.blog by Bix Frankonis. Comments and replies [by email](mailto:bix@slow.dog?subject=Toward A People’s Library) are welcome.