I just mapped a Little Free Library near me, which felt silly to do manually since the organization’s website already has a map with every library location worldwide. Glancing through their map, it’s clear that only a fraction of the libraries have been added to OSM so far.
Has anyone considered a bulk import of Little Free Library yet? I’m not sure what the licensing of their public map data is. However they are a nonprofit organization, so it’s likely they would support such an effort.
Sorry if my question sounds naive, I’m new to OSM and looking for ways to contribute!
I’m going to email them to request permission. What is the procedure for asking permission to copy data into OSM. Where do I upload proof of their permission (assuming they approve)? Should I CC open street maps?
They haven’t quoted a licence that they distribute information under, so the first step is, as you say, just send them an e-mail, something along the lines of:
We are wondering if you may be willing to share your database of Little Free Library locations with us, so we could enter them all into OSM?
Currently, quite a few are mapped, under a variety of names, but certainly not all of them, so any extra information that we can show would be very helpful for all consumers.
So, would this idea in general be acceptable to you?”
But then, don’t hold your breath waiting for a reply! Unfortunately, it seems that most requests like this don’t even get a reply, let alone any sort of positive outcome
By the way, the data is already in AllThePlaces (ATP): All the Places Spiders if you want data that is in OSM format. There are a couple of tags that need to be removed before upload that are internal to ATP. The addr:street_address tag should also be replaced with more granular tags like housenumber and street. alltheplaces/DATA_FORMAT.md at master · alltheplaces/alltheplaces · GitHub
That’s great to know! They never replied to my email and I haven’t followed up yet. Would it be okay for us to just import the locations from All the Places, or would we still need their permission first?
Wasn’t the stance of AllThePlaces always that they consider scrapping readily available Information on a Website (because it doesn’t matter if a user sees it and uses it or if a scrapper saves it and somebody uses it) not to be a licence issue and fair use? I don’t know if there is a definitive statement regarding this, but that was my conclusion everytime i came across that dataset.
I personally don’t use AllThePlaces because of that.
Unfortunately, it seems that most requests like this don’t even get a reply, let alone any sort of positive outcome 
