Little Free Library Indiana

HARBESON: This idea is book smart

SOUTHERN INDIANA — There’s a lot of truth in the phrase, “bigger is not always better.” For example, due to my husband’s love of NASCAR, I’m forever thankful that tiny collectible versions of his favorite cars exist. If they didn’t we’d need a lot more garage space.

I’ve always been fascinated by miniature versions of most anything. (Well, except for those miniature versions of candy bars — that’s just annoying.) So when I first saw a photo of a Little Free Library, I was immediately intrigued. These little libraries look like tiny buildings and are usually mounted outside on posts.

The idea for building tiny libraries began in Wisconsin as a fun way to support literacy and build community. The Little Free Library organization is “building and promoting ‘take a book, leave a book’ structures that fit in a front yard, by a sidewalk, coffee shop or park and are just big enough to hold 20 to 30 books that kids and adults can give and take.”

The idea attracted me on many levels. I’m a voracious reader and I really like the voluntary, local, grass-roots aspect. Even so, I didn’t pursue it any further than bookmarking their website. But then several interesting connections happened.

Through the Courier-Journal, I found out that Jeffersonville resident Phyllis Wilkins has been working on promoting the idea, not only for the local area, but throughout Indiana. She has created Little Free Library Indiana which is a partner with Little Free Library International.

I was glad to see someone else enthused about this idea. We met last week to discuss the project and it was fun talking about all the possibilities. We came up with about a million or so.

Phyllis is planning a Little Free Library in memory of neighbors Charley and Mickey Reisert, who both passed away recently. That was yet another connection for me. Although I only knew him for a short time as a result of writing my column, Charley and I had a couple of interesting lunches discussing books we both read on politics, philosophy and economics.

This brings me to yet another connection. During one of our discussions, Charley told me he wanted to set up a lunch with me, himself and Mayor Tom Galligan. I’m always open to having lunch with anyone, but I can’t help but suspect that Charley just thought it would be fun to watch the fireworks if any heated discussions erupted.

Even though that never happened, being reminded of it did make me think this Little Free Library Indiana project might be good for Galligan. So I’d like to invite Mr. Galligan to join us in this local community project that needs people who enjoy construction. He’s going to need something to do in a few weeks after he’s no longer the mayor anyway and it might be a good idea to keep him away from bulldozers.

As a matter of fact, this project perfectly fits all local politicians recently put out to pasture. They could have complete control over a building project, with no taxpayers breathing down their necks about cost, no council members biting ankles about minor details and no columnists complaining about using government force.

Anyway, no matter who you are, if this project speaks to you as it does to me and you would like to help create little libraries throughout the local area (and there are many ways you can help), I encourage you to get involved. Phyllis is hosting the first “official” meeting of the Little Free Library Indiana at 6 p.m. Friday at the Red Cross office, 1805 E. 8th St., Jeffersonville.

You can also keep updated on this project through the Little Free Library Indiana Facebook page and the Little Free Library Indiana blog, which is at www.littlefreelibraryindiana.wordpress.com.

— Clark County resident Debbie Harbeson thinks the inventor of those miniature bite-sized candy bars must surely be a masochist.

Rapture Prediction Leads to Letters Column

HARBESON: The emailman delivers> SOUTHERN INDIANA — I’m a little embarrassed because I don’t have a regular column prepared this week. I thought that whole Rapture thing was going to happen over the weekend.

Oh sure, I knew I’d still be here but I also figured chaos would reign long enough that a newspaper column would not be necessary for a while. Oops!

So, I’m relying on my readers to be my personal saviors. Let’s hear what a few of them have to say.

In a column on the subject of vouchers, I pointed out that government officials were celebrating choice while the system itself was still completely controlled through compulsory funding and compulsory attendance.

Several people had a few thoughts to add.

From Tom — “‘School choice’ is one of those subjects that just bugs the (nicely descriptive term deleted) out of me. I’m always running into people who claim that vouchers or tax credits are ‘a move in the direction of freedom,’ and who can’t understand that simply giving people a putative range of choices within a bad system is a way of strengthening that bad system, not weakening it.”

From Jill — “I hope the majority of responses that you receive are about how people hadn’t thought of those aspects (compulsion and coercion — not to mention ‘reform,’ which makes me cringe) of our education system before. Hopefully, you have turned on some ‘light bulbs’ in the minds of your readers. Education is definitely a hot-button issue, and the politicians know it (as they’re always hiding behind children).”

And one more from Fred — “Although many are going ga-ga over the voucher system, I wonder how many have looked far enough ahead to see the potentially negative effects that it will have on the private/parochial sector when they have to adhere to ‘government regulations’ in order to earn government dollars?”

I wrote a column pointing out how the new coffee shop in the New Albany Public Library proves that people are willing to pay for what they use, which generated this response from Dan: “You make it sound like people have to pay to get coffee at the library. Is that true? Are they discriminating against the coffee-poor? Or are they catering to the coffee-rich? (I always get this mixed up.) Clearly ... tax dollars ... should be spent to provide coffee-equality!!!”

In the same column, I discussed the idea of moving from the current coercive funding model to one where library funds are raised through voluntary means. This led to some brainstorming from Christa: “Lots and lots of churches have libraries with no coerced funding. I imagine other community organizations would also create libraries if there were no public libraries. One of my favorite ‘libraries’ is the genealogy collection at our local historical museum which is provided by a private, not-for-profit society.

“And someone could just put books in the Redbox for 99 cents per night (or maybe per week) ... Amazon should just start something like Netflix with real paper books (not just e-books).

“... There are lots of solutions in the free market ... Actually those of us who have to buy the PLAC card are used to paying a sort of subscription to use the library. It’s really not a stretch at all to think that others would pay as well.”

Finally I received several responses from people who think they solved the puzzle of where Clarksville’s lost car engine and Charlestown’s lost receipts for the JayC gift cards ended up. This theory from Tom may be the most likely: “My guess is whomever took the engine is using it as a paperweight to hold down the receipts for 950 gift cards.”

Now that’s what I call a government solution.

— Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson is thankful for readers who are willing to be her personal savior by providing column content.

We Don't Need No Government Funded Libraries

HARBESON: Dispensing some book learning

COLUMN NOTES: You really should go read the comments to this article. I'm particularly gratified that several people do indeed understand my points.

> SOUTHERN INDIANA — Last week, as part of my decluttering column, I mentioned local libraries and used $2 coffee as an example of people’s willingness to pay for what they want. As if to prove my point, the same day the paper also had an article about a coffee shop opening inside the New Albany-Floyd County library.

The article made it sound like the library had an innovative idea, which I found odd because the private voluntary market has been pairing coffee and books for years and years. In fact, my husband will tell you that pairing coffee and books really improved his life.

See, my husband loves coffee. He can hang out for hours in a coffee shop. On the other hand, I love books. I can hang out for hours in a bookstore.

But I don’t drink coffee and although my husband likes to read, he doesn’t want to hang around very long in bookstores. He has a problem because when we are out together he always has to do what I want.

But now that bookstores have coffee shops, when we’re out together and I want to browse books and all he wants is coffee, we no longer have a conflict. We just go to a bookstore and enjoy ourselves immensely. He can sit, slurp and burp while I shuffle and skip merrily along the rows of shelves.

Until we get kicked out anyway.

This may be the only thing that is holding our marriage together.

To get back to my point, the idea of pairing coffee shops and books is nothing new; the private market discovered it quite some time ago. So even though the library is a bit behind the times, I’m glad to see the coffee shop open because no one can deny that people will pay for what they want.

Well, politicians will probably still deny it and try to convince us of the need to continue government coercion, but we don’t have to listen to them. We can just throw cold coffee on their drivel.

We don’t need to use government force against our neighbors when we want a cup of coffee and it should be the same when we want to rent a book. That’s mostly what libraries are you know — just coercively funded book rental shops.

People rent stuff all the time. Cars are offered for loan and people rent them. Homes, apartments, furniture and appliances are offered for loan and people rent them. Tools and equipment are offered for loan and people rent them. Clothing for special occasions is offered for loan and people rent them.

You can even rent a date, which I probably would have done if bookstores had not added coffee shops.

I could go on for pages but then I’d be taking up space that this newspaper offers for loan and that people want to rent. This kind of voluntary action happens every day, all day long. No government force involved.

If society is able to find ways to borrow and rent all of these things on a voluntary basis, why should books be any different? There’s nothing special about books as far as a product people want to use on a temporary basis.

It’s completely unnecessary to use the government to force our neighbors to pay rental fees for the books and information we wish to access for a short period of time. We know this is true because if people were really so against voluntarily paying for what they want and use, there would be no coffee and pastry shop inside the government library.

Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson thinks the best use for coffee, hot or cold, is throwing it on politicians’ drivel.

If Only I Could Clean Out The Clutter of Laws Too

HARBESON: Debbie de-clutters

COLUMN NOTES: A commenter on the newspaper's site said "The same argument you make for libraries, could just as easily be made for the existence of National Public Radio, Public TV, and for that matter, the National Endowment for the Arts." I agree.

> SOUTHERN INDIANA — The file I use to collect material for possible columns is growing kind of thick which means it’s time to de-clutter. So today let’s take a quick look at a few of these topics before I throw out the trash.

The first item is an article about the Jeffersonville Canal. The government has started purchasing homes in the areas affected but at least one property owner, Fred Collins, says he isn’t interested in selling. When asked how they will handle such situations, government officials said they’d be as fair as they can.

What does this mean? If those in government were truly concerned about being fair, all they have to do is respect his wishes as a legitimate property owner and simply leave him alone. If you have any respect for the principle of individual property ownership, please join me in supporting Mr. Collins as he struggles to keep his home. Don’t let the government treat him as if he’s a bothersome piece of clutter.

Next up in my pile is a letter State Senator Ron Grooms wrote bemoaning the property tax circuit breaker because it affects the funding of one of his most beloved coercively funded institutions: government libraries.

To make his case for increasing the library’s options for additional coercive funding, he points out how many people love the library and gives statistics on local library usage. Grooms wants us to believe this is a valid argument for coercion, but it’s just as valid to argue that popularity proves there is no need to coerce. Such beloved institutions can surely be self-supporting because the many people who use the library and/or claim to love its purpose, as Grooms does, will act to close the funding gap with no need for government force.

For example, according to the numbers Grooms gave in the letter, if the Jeffersonville Township Library only made one change and charged a fee to check out materials, the cost would be less than 60 cents to use an item for several weeks. What library-loving patrons holding their daily $2 cup of coffee or 89 cent big swig of soda would object to this?

Finally, I have several pieces in my file dealing with the crazy clutter of laws we have concerning alcohol. Indiana’s oh-so-wise politicians discovered that elderly people get irritated if asked to show identification when they want to buy a six-pack and have a lot of time on their hands to bug their legislators about the problem. So, to de-clutter their lives, i.e., get the old people off their backs, legislators are messing with this law again, hoping to find that sweet spot, the age where people are desperately clinging to the illusion that they still look young, but are much too busy to complain to their legislators when they realize that’s not why they were carded.

Let’s add one more alcohol-related item to this de-cluttering column. Did you know that wineries need special government permission to sell their product at festivals and can currently only engage in such business activity for 30 days a year? Well, thanks in part to the work of Representatives Rhonda Rhoads and Ed Clere, they might now be allowed to have festival permits for 45 days a year. Shall we all have a drink to celebrate this amazing freedom?

I just don’t get it. I’m sitting here looking at another item I’m about to discard, a postcard from Rhoads’ campaign that says she is for smarter government. Wouldn’t smarter government best be defined by the repeal of such idiotic laws rather than adding to them?

I guess I can understand why politicians love legislative clutter. It gives them work to do because there’s always something for them to “clean-up.”

Sellersburg resident Debbie Harbeson de-clutters so thoroughly that she’s accidentally pitched her husband into the trash several times. No, really, they were accidents.