09 October 2011

Literacy Promotion in a Box

Walk or ride along a bike path sometime soon and you may spot one. Stop and open the door. A charming mini literary world awaits you thanks to the Little Free Library movement.

The idea is simple yet profound. Each Little Free Library is a small box, reminiscent of a bird house, just big enough to hold 20 books or so of varying topics, from nonfiction to novels, biographies or picture books. No library card needed. Simply pay it forward: take a book, donate a book, or exchange a book.

The Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization started by two men inspired by Andrew Carnegie. The men want to help communities worldwide increase access to books, raise literacy, and surpass famed Andrew Carnegie's record of building 2,509 free libraries. Carnegie paid for the buildings but expected the cities to fill them with books and fund the staff and maintenance. The Little Free Library wants to see their scaled-down libraries planted all over the world and tended to by neighbors.
"It's like a literary water cooler, where people gather and have a discussion about books in a way they wouldn't have had if they had just met on the street," says Todd Bol, one of the co-founders. 
The round the world journey of this movement and the books themselves is likely to continue, since all registered Little Libraries are noted on a Google map with global positioning (GPS) coordinates.

Anyone can be a registered Library Steward.  Bike riders, social activists, doctors, lawyers, art galleries, and community development advocates are already part of this modest little effort. The Hungry Intellectuals may be the next to join the movement, so stay tuned!

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