Image from LittleFreeLibrary.org
Earlier this week, someone sent me a link to a news story about Little Free Library. According to the Little Free Library website, a Little Free Library is a “'take a book, return a book' gathering place where neighbors share their favorite literature and stories. In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share."
Sounds pretty cool, huh? I had never heard of this. You may be surprised to find Little Free Libraries in your community. Check out this map to see if you can find one in your area!
There's not exactly a Little Free Library in my backyard, but there's one about 40 miles away. There are several in Lexington, which is about 70 miles from me. Maybe I'll check them out the next time I drive through the area!
Here's a video created by Little Free Library that explains it in further detail. This might be a great opportunity for the school library to become more involved with the community. You could promote local Little Free Libraries to your students!
My area has 3 Little Free Libraries within a 5 mile radius - one in my neighborhood, which my own children LOVE to visit; one in my parents' neighboorhood, which is located just steps away from a K-12 school complex; and one in a local park. The LFL by the school was the "original" in my local area, and the woman who it belongs to said it is well-visited by students walking home from school 🙂
I'd love to put a couple more up around town in under served areas on behalf of my school district - that may be next summer's project, which ultimately will support this year's project of a district book bus, which I will be driving around this summer, loaded with boxes of books to share with our economically disadvantaged students, who otherwise wouldn't have access to a library.
If anyone has done a summer book bus/bookmobile, I'd love some pointers.