Little Free Library

If you haven’t heard of Little Free Libraries before, it is a neighborhood book exchange where anyone is encouraged to take a book or leave a book from a free-standing hand-built library. Most of them look like oversized bird houses and are placed onto a post that’s set into the ground out by the curb (in most cases).  The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 and now there are over 200,000 Little Free Libraries nationwide and throughout the world in 128 countries! They’ve helped facilitate the sharing of over 400 million books! Jefferson Landscape and Design has a program where we donate Little Free Libraries to our clients with fair sized projects. However, anyone can either build their own Little Free Library (of any style) or purchase an online kit from their website.

Become a Little Free Library Steward! Build a Little Free Library to put in front of your house and share books with your community!

You might be surprised at the popularity of these Little Free Libraries and how much your neighbors will appreciate having a book exchange right down the street where they can offload extra books from their library and perhaps pick something they haven’t yet read. Folks out for a walk will stop by and have a look, those walking their dogs, children on their way home from school. I have one at my house and when I’m outside, people drive by whom I’ve never met will actually pull over to thank me for putting in a Little Free Library. I’m a rock star in my own neighborhood. I see people stopping by with their kids to swap books and it makes me feel noble, like I’m contributing to the good in the world. And let’s face it. We need more of it!

In fact, Penguin Random House recently teamed up with Little Free Library to contribute to that same overall good. Some 200 additional Little Free Libraries will be installed at Title I elementary schools throughout the United States and Penguin Random House will generously donate over 40,000 books, or 200 books per Little Free Library to help the disadvantaged. The libraries are sponsored in part by Books Unbanned and three of its consortium members, including our local San Jose State University!

You can find Little Free Libraries in your area by looking on Google or downloading their app. Make it a fun outing with your kids, or for yourself, and visit a few. There is even a Facebook group for Little Free Library Stewards. Don’t let unused books collect dust in your bookcase at home, donate them and find some fresh reading material in exchange! Encourage your kids to do the same—save yourself some money and maintain their interest in reading. It’s important! Kids outgrow books and you can teach them an invaluable ethic by having them pass their books on.

Don’t have many books of your own? No problem! My local library donates books to my Little Free Library 3 or 4 times a year. Yours will too if you introduce yourself.

Whether you order a do-it-yourself kit from Little Free Library or whether you build your own (which they also encourage), you can purchase a plaque for it for around $40 then you are officially registered with a number and added to the map! (Jefferson Landscape and Design provide both the library as well as a registered plaque for qualifying clients.)