Todd Bol was probably happy to see all the perky, colorful little boxes stuffed with books along the rural roads and urban sidewalks in places like the eastern shore of the Chesapeake Bay, the sprawl near Atlanta, downtown Albuquerque and rural Texas.
A decade ago, Bol built a model of a one-room schoolhouse, stuck it on a post, filled it with books and invited his community of Hudson, Wisc., to take the books they wanted and return them when they were done. The “library” became popular and got attention, and soon he and college buddy were starting a non-profit organization to spread the word.
Bol, who passed away last year, would probably be even happier to know that educators were behind the effort in those regions and many other areas, because he carefully crafted that first one with a teacher mind—his mother, who he dedicated it to.
“It is fitting that so often teachers, and especially retired educators, are involved in establishing Little Free Libraries since that’s how the idea came about,” says Margret Aldrich, program manager for the non-profit Little Free Library, which registers and provides resources for the little collections, including plans and kits for building them, procedures for promoting and managing them and discount-priced books to fill their shelves.
As it celebrates its 10-year anniversary this year, the movement has helped place more than 80,000 Little Free Libraries in all 50 states and more than 90 countries.
Those locations are shown on an interactive map on the organization’s web site, along with winners of annual awards in honor of Bol. This year they include retired teacher Linda Prout, who has helped establish more than 200 book-sharing boxes in the New Orleans area.
Aldrich says the libraries are often established and maintained by students, schools, teachers—and especially retired educators.
“Teachers love books, and they know how important they are. So, it is natural for them to want to do some- thing in retirement to make them available,” she says.
In Albuquerque, for instance, retired educator Mark Witt put up a little free library two years ago that attracts a steady stream of users.
“On a daily basis we see professionals from nearby architectural and consultingfir ms, University of New Mexico students, neighbors out walking dogs, retired folks taking evening constitutionals, and laborers checking out the little free library—many on a regular basis,” Witt says, noting that homeless residents also make use of it.
Books are usually returned, but when they aren’t, the supply is filled out with 50-cent paperbacks from a local thrift shop and with other donations.
“This allows us to sort of curate our books to the taste of readers. In a month we will buy 40 to 60 books. It’s just a pleasure to see so many people enjoying them,” he says.
Retired educators in rural Dorchester County, Md., along the Chesapeake Bay have for two years also been involved in installing Little Free Libraries—their own and others’—at more than a dozen locations in the big rural county that has only two full-sized libraries.
“It has been an important project for us because it provides a much-needed service to children and adults in our community,” says Ruth Clendaniel, a longtime teacher and administrator who has led the effort. “This is especially important because there are some homes with few or no books in our communities. School performance in reading also is poor in some of our schools. This is one way we can help,” she says.
Working with the educators, a Girl Scout troop soon built a little library for a small river town and the local newspaper donated two old newspaper boxes which were painted and modified and went up on the main street in Cambridge, the county seat. Six churches have installed them, a tech school built and painted a unit and put it up near a community center, and elementary students erected one near their school—all working with or inspired by the retired teachers.
Now the group is setting up reading stations in some public buildings and has developed a trailer with crates of books on it that can travel to public events and popular locations.
Retired teachers in other areas also have been inspired by the concept.
West of Atlanta, after 30 years of teaching in the Douglas County (Georgia) School System, Elaine Rollins wanted to continue with work that benefited children, so on her birthday last year in April she opened a Little Free Library near her home.
“I wanted to find something that has purpose and that I am capable of doing at this stage of my life with children and books,” she said when the library was featured in a local magazine.
In Lubbock, Texas, retired teacher and librarian Bill Meadors six years ago gained media attention for his busy free library, and about 300 miles to the east in little Hudson Oaks, Texas, retired teacher Sandra Burrow in June was featured in a local paper for the bright purple Little Free Library outside her home.
“My message is how important it is for children to read,” Burrow told the Texas newspaper, the Weatherford Democrat. “I put on our neighborhood app that I wanted to do this, and people brought me over 200 books.”
Her library holds about 50 books, but she sets aside boxes of donated books and invites people to browse through them if they can’t find what they want in the Little Free Library. The newspaper reported that Burrow’s project has inspired others to set up several little libraries in the area.
Aldrich notes that her group’s research shows that the Little Free Libraries increase interaction among neighbors and perhaps help home sales and local businesses. But the retired educators who have gotten involved mostly focus on how it can boost interest in reading. Clendaniel says she’s found it hasn’t been hard to get educators interested for that reason.
“Retired teachers, in particular, spent their careers working with students when reading and books were an important part of what we were about,” she says. “When a teacher retires, this value in reading books carries over in much that we do.”
