Little Free Library

Thanks to Stephanie Sherwood's post on the Book Arts List, I learned about this wonderful project of Rick Brooks and Todd Bol who are the cofounders of the nonprofit Little Free Library. Here's an excerpt from the article in the Library Journal that describes how their project got started:

In 2009, they began fabricating and installing little libraries around Madison, WI. The libraries are essentially a nicely designed, weatherproof hutch mounted on poles, which contain a collection of about 20 books and a sign that reads "Take a Book, Leave a Book."

Literacy and a sense of community are the project's bedrock, and it has begun to take hold beyond Wisconsin.

"The primary motivation, without any doubt, is the good feeling that people get around these," said Brooks, who lives in Madison. "What made it happen was Tod had just built a little box in the shape of a schoolhouse as a memorial library to honor his mother. People would drive by his house and stop and say, 'What a cute idea,' " Brooks said.

About a week after finishing the first structure, Bol had a garage sale that wasn't very successful, but everyone was drawn to the little library. "I called up Rick and said, "People really want this,' " Bol said.

"It was really interesting that it was a cross section of the populace," Bol said. "It was like a literary water cooler, where people gathered and had a discussion about books in a way they wouldn't have had if they had just met on the street," he said.

I absolutely love this idea. For more information, visit the Little Free Library website.

And if you like the idea of little libraries, check out this past post about Lighthouse Libraries.