Libraries’ Week is an annual celebration of all things ‘librarial’. As you know, these days libraries are not just about bookshelves lined with wonderful things to read. They are also meeting places, craft centres, digital focal points and therapy hubs. This week in Trafford’s libraries, you can improve your digital skills, paint with string, have a therapeutic hand massage and learn more about the ballads and songs of Peterloo.  Read about some of the events taking place in Trafford’s libraries during Libraries’ Week 2020.

This post, however, is concerned with books, specifically printed books – and the weird and wonderful places they find a home. Strange libraries are like mushrooms – they pop up in nooks and crannies, often unexpectedly. So it’s fitting that Kyoto’s Botanic Gardens is home to these beautiful mushroom libraries. It’s such a fun way to present books to children and I wish we had one on every street corner.

Speaking of street corners, until the advent of mobile phone technology, the classic red telephone box was an everyday feature of our street furniture. These days, they are less common but some remain – and many have been repurposed as cute community libraries.

For example, in the village of Wesbury-sup-Mendip, the community rallied round when the mobile library service was cancelled. They created a book-lending hub in the village’s disused phone box. You can read more about this charming project here in the Guardian.

The Little Free Library proposes to place cute little book boxes like the one below in our parks and playgrounds. You can start your own Little Free Library: start here!

Sweden is a country that knows how to blend whimsy with practicality. Faced with the difficulty of bringing its mobile library service to the further reaches of the country, Sweden has responded with a number of bokbaten: floating libraries. What could be nicer than looking out over the sea as a boat full of bookish delights glides into view?

We don’t all have the benefit of miniature mushroom libraries, phone box book-swapping centres or floating libraries – but we do have some great libraries in Trafford. Let’s make sure we use them – and frequently.