Books available for free at Little Libraries
Free Libraries. A neighbor Christal Wendt started the project but has since moved.
“Nobody took it over,” Gibson said. “And I thought, ‘I can’t let this go.’ I decided to take the bull by the horns.”
The first order of business was to repair existing libraries that had been damaged by weather.
Gibson also set up a Facebook group so volunteers could communicate.
The first Little Free Library is in the community’s recreation center. There is another inside the shop One Hip Mom, located at 9337 Spring Cypress. A third library was set up by a nearby pool, and Gibson recently installed another at the neighborhood fitness center.
“We’ve got four now, and we’d like to add more,” Gibson said. “I think reading is so important, and so few kids read the way they should now. I like the idea of having an easy way to go get books and a place to take your old books.”
She said that parents and children alike search the Little Free Libraries for reading material.
“People go with their kids,” she said. “It’s a neat thing. There’s new stuff all the time. It’s fun for parents to say, ‘Let’s walk down and see what books are in the little library.’”
More Little Free Libraries will be coming soon, thanks to the efforts of the Spring Independent School District.
Sheleah Reed, executive director of communication, serves as chair for the district’s love of literacy workgroup.
“We want students to have a love and passion for reading,” she said. “You can teach them to read and get them reading in the classroom, but what about once they get home?”
Reed said some children do not have access to books when they are away from school.
The district partnered with community hair salons to start Books in Barbershops, a program that targets young male readers and also created Laundromat Literacy to provide children a chance to read while waiting for clothes to was hand dry.
“Then we ran across the Little Free Libraries,” Reed said. “I fell in love with them.”
She proposed adding one to every elementary school campus. “And we were able to do that,” she said. “We’re looking to have all 28up this spring.”
Reed’s goal is to have all the libraries opened and fully stocked in time for summer so children have access to books over the break from school.
In the meantime, she hopes the libraries will spark an interest in reading.
“There’s an intrigue about them,” she said. “It’s about igniting a fire.”
Reed also invites parents to check the shelves for new titles. “Our job is serving the students and part of that is serving the family,” she said. “We are hoping this is an opportunity to reach parents in the community.”
She explained that seeing parents read reinforces a teacher’s message that reading is important and that children need reading role models at home.
Reed added that children learn more from being stewards of the Little Free Libraries. “When you finish a book, you give it back,” she said. “You’re teaching soft skills of sharing, taking care of the book and taking care of the little library.”
The Montgomery County Memorial Library System is also adding to its Little Free Library program.
Last year, the library decided to build a mobile box-of-books and put out a call for a place to prop it up in the county. Finally, they settled on installing the library in the Deerwood neighborhood east of Conroe
Melissa Baker, library marketing and program coordinator, explained that businesses and individuals were invited to apply.
She said that the Little Free Library goes on loan for a year with installations happening in April around National Library Week.
“We’re looking for applicants for next year,” Baker said. “We want to spread this around the county as much as possible. It all depends on who shows interest.”
She describes the Little Free Library movement as a community-wide book swap. “You never know what you’re going to find,” she said. “It’s a great way for literacy to come to life. It brightens up wherever you put it.”