Little Free Libraries: Human Connection Venues

A few years ago, our daughter established, built and stocked a Little Free Library at the front edge of our property, because of her personal passion for reading & circulating hard copy books.

Thankfully, we’ve had many different people donate books to the little green box perched at our Homestead Stand. I’ve personally enjoyed reading some of them and donated a few of my own.

Look Inside!

In an attempt to draw attention to this gem in our local neighborhood, I recently took a physical inventory of its contents and published a list to distribute to those who regularly visit us and to those who live nearby.

Then, I blogged about using & promoting our local Little Free Library on my personal website.

I now plan to email my neighbors to pass this list onto them.

Take a Book. Share a Book.

While the nameplate attached to the top of this Little Free Library says: Take a Book. Share a Book, I want to encourage folks to go a step further and use the opportunity to reveal a small bit about themselves whenever donating and/or sharing their books to places like these.

At one time I thought this venue could be used to advertise our business and non-profit endeavors — and I still see that as an option. But now I’m leaning towards advertising a personal connection to the books I donate, read & share.

What I’ve Done Thus Far

Created Donor Cards that provide a Why

I made up some fill-in-the-blank cards to complete & include with any book donations I make going forward.

On the card I provided a space to note the book’s title & author, the book’s donor & the donor’s location (generally speaking), for informational purposes. (I did this thinking I might make this available for others to use.)

And then I included a lined space to write a small blurb as to why the noted book was donated. (I completed and inserted one of these cards in my most recent donation.)

I may tweak the card a bit going forward, but this is what I started with.

Provided Personal Review/Reaction Slips

I’ve also created some personal review/reaction slips of paper to leave inside the Little Free Library for anyone to take whenever they grab a book to read. And I’ve affixed an envelope inside the library door to submit those completed responses.

Going Forward

Publishing Periodic Updates

Up until now, I don’t think our particular Little Free Library has gotten a whole lot of traffic. I’d like to change that — at least with the people I know living right around us.

So, for the foreseeable future I’m going to volunteer a portion of my attention, time & energy to publishing & distributing a regular update to our Little Free Library’s contents list (and including whatever book review/reactions are submitted).

We’ll see what kind of response this gets.