Something for nothing

Most people like to travel with some type of entertainment, and more often than not, it’s a book. They’re prevalent in airports for those who forget until the last minute, and hotel gift shops may even carry a few for the vacationers who completed their speed reading before returning home. 

But over recent years, another phenomenon has taken to the streets: the Little Free Library. And Mountain Brook residents have joined in on the fun.

“From my understanding, they’re nonmobile, stationary libraries scattered throughout neighborhoods and cities,” said Mountain Brook Junior High advanced English teacher Andrew Cotten. And, he’s right.

They’re commonly seen in high foot-traffic areas, on residents’ lawns or in front of businesses. They’re the things that look like oversized mailboxes from far away, but up close, you soon learn they’re not filled with mail — they’re filled with books.

And the idea behind them is simple: take a book, give a book. 

“Anybody could use it if they wanted to,” Cotten said. No library card is needed.

According to the Little Free Library website, the organization aims to build community, spark creativity and inspire readers. 

The “take a book, leave a book” movement was started when Todd Bol built the first Little Free Library in 2009, and it soon blossomed into a nonprofit. The website said as of November 2016, there were more than 50,000 registered Little Free Libraries in all 50 states and in more than 70 countries worldwide. The overarching idea is to help fight illiteracy by bringing books to areas that otherwise might not have access to them.

Leigh Laser Collins, who lives in Cherokee Bend, decided she wanted to build the little library that sits on her lawn as a way to meet her neighbors. She lives on a highly traveled street, with children and families walking past her house to get to and from Cherokee Bend Elementary everyday.

She had first seen Little Free Libraries when traveling.

“I saw one in Virginia, North Carolina, every place but Birmingham,” she said. “It just seemed like such a natural community builder to me. And that’s what Mountain Brook particularly is all about.”

She said she had trouble embracing the concept “that I could just take [a book],” but soon learned of the force behind it.

After doing some more research, she went to social media to raise funds to purchase the supplies the library. In all, Collins estimates 25 neighbors contributed, including two who helped build the library and its support post. Local artist Sally Boyd is also in the process of decorating the Little Free Library.

Collins bought the “do-it-yourself” setup for the library from the Little Free Library nonprofit, and within a week of it being up, she said she had probably 200 books to put in it. It didn’t take long for neighborhood kids to face the same confusion that they could just take a book.

“I’ll overhear kids, even teenagers saying, ‘No, you can’t take one of those [books].’ ‘Yea, you can.’ And they get in great debates over it,” Collins said. “Particularly with kids, peer pressure is a powerful force, and when you see a friend take a book or bring a book back, you’re typically going to want to look into that.”

She thinks the community’s commitment to the library has helped maintain it, and eventually, Collins would like to work with Cherokee Bend Elementary to have weekly student stewards.

“Little things like the ability to pick and choose or give someone a book really empowers people to do a little more,” Collins said.

Cotten, who built a Little Free Library with the help of some of his students and their families, had a similar experience with their Little Free Library.

Located at the junior high, Cotten said he emailed some parents, and, “six dads showed up one night and we just built it in my classroom.” They used a donated locker to build the library into a bench and the students helped stain and paint the Little Free Library. 

It’s currently out of commission until some leaks are repaired, but Cotten said it holds probably the equivalent of 15 200-page books. They’ve amassed many more through donations, though.

“It’s not uncommon for people to leave entire boxes of books next to the Little Free Library,” he said. The students help manage the influx of books and swap them out as needed.

Cotten said most of their books are young adult or children’s books, which he attributes to the proximity to the school. Collins also has a good amount of children’s books, being right down the street from an elementary school, but said the books “ran the scope from ABCs to fiction to autobiography.”

Both Cotten and Collins have registered their libraries with Little Free Libraries, but not all have a charter number from the nonprofit. Collins said people should look into getting a charter number for each one — which costs $40 — to support the original idea.

“The reason you want to do that … is those dollars help take the movement forward,” she said. “A Little Free Library might go somewhere to an impoverished area or an area where they wouldn’t see books.”

Obtaining a charter number and registering the library is also a way for people to find others on the nonprofit’s website when they need to swap out a book or find something new to read.

Both Collins and Cotten have seen the books reach a larger scope than just the one-block radius of their libraries, too.

“There were some times I would drive by on a Saturday and see people sitting on the bench, reading and taking books,” Cotten said. “I appreciate what Little Free Library is doing, and I thought it would be a unique opportunity for our students to share their love of reading with the outside world.”

Collins spoke of her mailwoman, who one day asked about the library and was ecstatic to learn that she was able to just take a couple books. “She was so excited, because she had a sister who has kids and couldn’t afford books,” Collins said.

The Little Free Library idea was something that started with just a few books as a way to contribute to or be a part of a community. But over the years, it’s become something much more. 

“There’s the saying you don’t get something for nothing, but in this case, you do,” Collins said. “There’s really no one who wouldn’t benefit from it.”

To learn more about Little Free Library, or to find a Little Free Library near you, visit littlefreelibrary.org.