Little Free Libraries provide pages for all ages

Program increases access to books in San Diego’s low-income neighborhoods.

SAN DIEGO — Just outside Katia Padilla’s Chula Vista home are two upright boxes filled with shelves of dozens of books for sharing with children, teens and adults.

They’re called Little Free Libraries.

Padilla, who grew up in Mexico, loved to read when she was a little girl, but books were expensive and she didn’t always have access to them, she said.

“I would dream I had a library all for myself,” Padilla said.

Now a mother and retired ultrasound technician,

Padilla wants to be sure her children and other kids in the neighborhood don’t face similar obstacles to reading. That was her driving force for installing the little libraries, she said.

And it’s one reason San Diego County officials are turning to little libraries to increase access to books in low-income neighborhoods and communities of color across the region.

The idea behind these book-sharing boxes is simple: take a book; leave a book. The popularity of little libraries has grown over their first 11 years — there are more 100,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide, including 270 in San Diego alone.

The county Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to create a Little Libraries initiative to help residents in low-income communities install the book-sharing boxes.

According to the San Diego

Council on Literacy, about 560,000 adults in the region read at an elementary school level or not at all. About 60% of low-income students in San Diego don’t have books at home.

“The reality is there are vast disparities,” said Supervisor Nora Vargas, who represents cities and neighborhoods in southern parts of the county.

“Many communities’ children don’t have access to age-appropriate books at home, which causes them to fall behind.”

Vargas brought the initiative to the board. She said it will address some disparities in disadvantaged communities by promoting and encouraging reading from home.

The county plans to set aside $20,000 for the initiative. The county’s library system would work with the San Diego Council on Literacy and other nonprofits and volunteer groups to install more little libraries.

The book-sharing boxes are a program of the Little Free Library, a national nonprofit that provides mini-library building materials and information to people around the world. People can register the libraries with the organization for a one-time fee of $40 to $80.

But registration isn’t mandatory. There are dozens in San Diego that are not affiliated with the nonprofit.

The registration fee can be an obstacle for some, as well as getting the materials to build the libraries and purchasing books to fill them, advocates say.

“I think a lot of folks, they forget how expensive books are,” said Jose Cruz, chief executive of the San Diego Council on Literacy. “You go into a regular store, you’re going to pay $12 to $15 for a book .... For a low-income family that’s a lot.”

In an effort to help families interested in operating little libraries, Cruz said the council will collect donated books.

He said little libraries can increase children’s access to books in a neighborly way.

“Here are these residents in all these communities across America and beyond that are building their own libraries and exchanging books, reading them, trading them, and it’s just something that makes you feel good,” Cruz said.

It’s unclear how many little libraries are in San Diego’s southern neighborhoods because many are not officially registered.

Padilla said there are at least 10 little libraries within a three-mile radius of her home.

Neighbors in Logan Heights and Valencia Park have been installing little libraries across those neighborhoods. A community council in Valencia Park has already helped install four little libraries.

Padilla opened the little libraries in front of her home two years ago and has seen how successful they are.

“Putting them in areas of low income, that’s going to make so many kids happy,” she said. “I wish we have little free libraries on every block.”

She keeps the libraries stocked with books in Spanish, Tagalog and other languages. She also recently opened a little library outside her home in Baja California.

“You see kids who are very low income and they ask you, ‘Are you sure they are free?’ and then you see their big smiles and sometimes they say, ‘I’ve never had a book,’ ” Padilla said.