Thursday, May 24, 2012

Little Library

Todd Bol wanted to honor his mother, a former teacher and book lover who died a decade ago. So Bol built a miniature model of a library, filled it with books for anyone to take, and placed it outside his home in Hudson, Wis. He says people loved it. "People just kept coming up to it, looking at it, patting it, saying 'oh, it's cute,' " Bol recalls. From that idea, hundreds of similar Little Free Libraries are popping up on lawns across the country. They're tiny — no bigger than a dollhouse. Some look like miniature homes or barns. Others just look like a box on a post.


Since its humble beginning, the idea has grown and now the idea has been organized, and Little Free Libraries are appearing throughout the United States and some foreign countries.


                            Our Mission (http://www.littlefreelibrary.org/)

  • 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.  
  • To build more than 2,510 libraries around the world--more than Andrew Carnegie! 
Lucky me...there's one in my neighborhood!





21 comments:

  1. YESSS j'adore cette petite librairie, c'est une tres belle idee

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  2. humanity at its best.

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  3. that is so cute! i do hope they are utilized well!

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  4. That is so cool! I wish there were one on our country road. The local library in Nacogdoches (24 miles away) has saved my sanity living in an isolated area the past year a half. I've ever started listening to books on tape because there aren't any decent radio stations within range, although I sometimes have trouble concentrating because I'm always looking for photo ops when I'm on the road!

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  5. I love this idea... very cool!
    Hope you are doing well, Kate!

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  6. What a terrific idea!

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  7. That is adorable! I want one!

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  8. What a great idea! Love this miniature model of a library!

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  9. What a great idea!

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  10. Such a cool idea! I am inspired now to do one in our yard. We get a lot of walkers in our neighborhood this time of year. I think it'd be a fun project for my family, especially my 9-year-old.

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  11. I'm thinking of ordering one this summer, Kate. You might then have to travel a bit north of St. Paul to visit it.

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  12. This is such a good idea. I always wonder what to do with my books after reading them. Not all can or should be kept.

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  13. What a great idea.

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  14. My goodness, Kate, but this post moves me emotionally to a very warm place, as one who adores reading actual books that I can hold in my hands. I cannot thank you enough for your decision to share this with us.

    And I have to share something with you that happened just today, after work as I walked from one bus stop to the next so that I could catch the bus on home. I walked along with my hardback library book in my left hand. Step for step in front of me walked a young woman with a paperback book in her left hand. Out of the corner of my left eye, I noticed someone trotting along the sidewalk on the other side of the street, a hardback book in his right hand. Seconds later, I spied a woman leaning on a downtown building beside a bus stop, reading a hardback library book--I could see Multnomah County Library stamped on the page edges. It was an amazing moment for me, one of so many such moments that I notice here in my beloved Portland.

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  15. I really, REALLY like this idea! It's such a great way to share the love of reading.

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  16. That is so cool! We have a book exchange at work that I started but it seems books go faster than the come. I received a Kindle for Mother's Day. I struggled to get it set up and learn to use it and it is nice and all that. But I didn't really want one and I rather miss having a book in my hand.

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  17. what a great idea!!!
    cute!

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  18. What a great idea Kate, as Jack said, a good thing to do with books you've read but don't want to dispose of!

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  19. What a wonderful idea and such cute little libraries and all so
    colourful with original designs on them.
    Di.
    ABCW team.

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