free library

No-cost lending collection

A free library is a public library supported by taxes or donations, offering books and other materials without charge to borrowers.

The term also refers to small, informal book-sharing stations—often wooden boxes on posts in residential neighborhoods—where anyone can take or leave books: Someone put up a free library on their front lawn.

Related

page · literature · return · late fees · Benjamin Franklin · literacy programs · story time · summer reading · membership · information · interlibrary loan · book drop · lending · shelf · public · bookmobile · stack · book lending

Opposites
cost/commercial model

free librarybookstore

Shop selling printed works

Amazon

access restrictions

free libraryprivate library

Individually owned book repository

personal library · private collection · university library

institutional philosophy

free libraryfor-profit education

Education operated as business

Family

free, library, freely, freedom, freed, freeing, freer, freest, freeman

Familiarity
Top 100,000
Profile
Known to kids · Used worldwide · Timeless · Concrete · Positive · Everyday, not technical · Rated G