Little Free Libraries

build your own

I am totally in love with Little Free Libraries! Aren’t they so adorable? I want one in my front yard too. Happily, this fantastic organization has been getting some due props this week from the Etsy blog team and from artist, Jessica Swift.

Todd Bol

Essentially, it’s an organization that supports sharing of books: “Take a book, return a book” now appears on each and every recorded Little Free Library. The idea started in 2009 by Todd Bol, to honor his mother, June. He built a schoolhouse structure, filled it with books, and mounted in on a pole. Voila—a little free library!

take a book, return a book

share books

From the start of one, there are now more than 1,500 Little Free Libraries in more than 40 states and 20 countries. Interested in creating your own? The Little Free Libraries website offers fully built structures or directions for creating your very own one-of-a-kind design. There are all sorts of libraries—bird feeders, British phone booths, cute cottages, and barns. Some even have elaborate painted exteriors too! But above all, these structures are easily to use with a plexiglass door so about 20-50 books can be seen.

picture books
(all images from Little Free Library website)

Each new library can be registered with the Little Free Library organization and get an official number and be added to a Google map where interested book lovers can search for nearby little free libraries. I looked in Rochester, New York and there aren’t any here. Maybe D and I can be the first to build one! Little Free Libraries are great community builders. Neighbors can meet neighbors as books are browsed/returned or their curiosity draws them out. They simply make people smile. Do you have a Little Free Library in your neighborhood?

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