Two Czechs started converting old phone booths into mini-libraries

Two young Czechs decided to give new life to old phone booths in Prague by turning them into mini-libraries. They became obsolete because of mobile boom, informs AFP.

The first one was inaugurated Thursday in a hospital in Prague, the Czech capital .

On the shelves of the red painted booth, Ikem hospital patients can find books of all genres, written by different authors, including works by US crime writer John Grisham, Czech and Russian titles and biographer Andrew Morton’s “Diana: Her True Story”.

Monika Serbusova, 27 years old, co-author of this project with a colleague, says he was inspired by a similar project in the UK.

A man walks past the mini library made from a former phone booth in IKEM hospital on January 9, 2014, in Prague. Two young Czechs have found a new life for phone booths scrapped amid a surge in mobile telephony, converting them into mini-libraries with the first installed at a Prague hospital. Monika Serbusova, a 27-year-old creative specialist and the co-author of the project, said she and her friend had drawn inspiration from a similar project in Britain. AFP PHOTO/MICHAL CIZEK

The two have won the support of a local telephone operator and arranged those miniature libraries with friends and colleagues.

“My cousin, who attend a technical school, told us how to mount shelves, my grandmother brought us a bag full of books, thrown by the owners of her building”, said Monika Serbusova.

The organizers of this project have 700 books that they received as a gift.

Peeking into the new hospital library, IKEM radiologist Radomira Hnutova called it “a wonderful idea”.

“The plan is to install new cabins Prague and turn them into mini-libraries to see if they are successful with the public”, said Lucie Jungmannova, spokeswoman of Telefónica Czech Republic, which manages more than 13,000 telephone booths on in that country.

Source: AFP