Little Library
A new library opened down the block.
Despite crushing budget deficits for local government, the amazing just happened in my neighborhood.
A new library opened down the block.
Even more amazing, it wasn't put up by a government. It isn't some massive, sprawling complex full of tomes containing the wisdom of the ages as well as three DVDs of Paul Blart Mall Cop. Not that I have anything against those sorts of buildings. I love libraries and spent way too many happy days in them to ever be anything but supportive.
The thing is, this new library? It was raised in a day. It's a private library up on a wooden pole.
The Little Free Library is on the corner of Providence Lane West and Lancer Drive in South Charlotte. And it is awesome!
I spoke with the folks who put up the library and they said it was a way they could do some community service by offering books to read to anyone who walked past, but also clean out some of their massively overloaded bookshelves lining the walls of their home. A situation with which I am completely familiar.
The Little Free Library isn't something they cooked up on their own, though. There's actually a whole grass-roots movement out here that's trying to put these kinds of little libraries in every neighborhood, every city and every rural district in the country.
The goal, says the founders, is the make it so anyone who wants to can find a new book to read and doesn't have to have internet access or even electricity. All they need is their own two feet and to know that such a library exists.
What began in 2009 as one man putting up a small roadside stand to give away some of his books, has become a movement with a stated aim of assisting in the construction of 2,509 free public libraries around the country. That is, by the way, the same number of much larger free public libraries philanthropist Andrew Carniege funded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Our Mission
To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide.
To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations.
Our Goal
To build 2,510 Little Free Libraries-as many as Andrew Carnegie-and keep going.*
Key Strategies
Promotion of reading for children, literacy for adults and libraries around the world.
Definitely an admirable set of goals there, folks. And you can actually join in if you want.
There's no admissions criteria. All you really have to do is build a Little Free Library, put it in your front yard, stock it with books and you're good to go.
If you do decide to become involved, the Little Free Libraries organization has a series of five simple steps that will help make your pathway to becoming a very special library patron and owner as smooth as possible. You can find the directions on the Little Free Libraries "Get Involved" webpage.
I gotta tell you folks, if I didn't live in a cul de sac, where the only people who walk in front of my house are my neighbors and we're already trading books at a relatively astonishing rate, I'd have one of these things in my yard as quickly as possible.
I would love to order a kit and build one of these with the youngest Spawn of My Loins as a great father-son project. In fact.
Talking to you guys here has helped me make a decision. I am going to order a kit and make one with Youngest Son. Then we're going to find a place that will help with the care and feeding of a small, but growing library and give the new temple to knowledge to them. It's going to be fun. I'll let you know how it goes.
Also, if any of you decide to do this, give me a shout here and let me know.
