Little Free Library Still Popular

Earlier this week, sitting on the porch of the house next door to the Good Neighbor House, we watched three different individuals visit the Little Free Library (LFL) on the corner of Colcord and 23rd. We managed to capture one of those visits in this photo.

How popular is this Little Free Library? How did it start at Good Neighbor? How can we support it more effectively? 

We asked Libby Feray, one of our Resident Volunteers and one of the current stewards of the LFL. Libby shares this responsibility with Abby Sebastian, who started the LFL at Good Neighbor in 2016.

Here are Libby’s responses:  

Because of COVID, I have been the one circulating books through the library. Abby has been quite diligent in securing a steady stream of books; she often gets them for reduced prices at yard sales and then drops them off in bulk here.

 

I restock when I see that we’re running low, at least two or three times a week. It always amazes me just how quickly books fly off the shelf! I’d say the most popular books (the ones we go through quickest) are children’s picture books. (So donations of those types of books are most appreciated!)

 

When I restock the library, usually I have in mind putting a variety of books out there. That means, of course, a lot of children’s books and short chapter books, but also some thriller/mystery novels, self-help and or spiritual writings, books about nature, the occasional cookbook, and (my favorite) a “classic” book or two. It always makes me happy when I see that something like The Scarlet Letter or Wuthering Heights has been taken. Most everything I put out there eventually goes. I stock the Little Free Library from the larger library of donated books we have inside the house.

 

The general idea of the Little Free Library is that people would return the book after reading it for someone else to read (or would leave another book for someone else), but of course many of the books never make it back (we assume that will be the case.) However, there are many times I find that people have placed new and different books in the library for others to read.

Join our neighbors and visit and use the Little Free Library. And if you have a few books you think would be of interest to the neighbors who use this, please contact us via email: info@goodneighborwaco.org