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Little Free Libraries offer volumes of goodwill, as well as reading material

MOBILE, Alabama – Charla Evans, a family practice physician, first heard of Little Free Libraries on National Public Radio a couple of years ago and knew that she wanted one in the waiting room of her office in at Family Medical Southwest in west Mobile as an alternative to the usual assortment of magazines.

"I thought it sounded like a great idea," she said. "I'm a big reader, and I try to get my patients, especially kids, interested in reading."

Little Free Libraries are popping up all over the world, usually in front yards, as places where library "stewards" let neighbors "take a book, return a book." The Little Free Library movement started in Wisconsin in 2009. Today, there are some 15,000 of the libraries, "with thousands more being built," according to littlefreelibrary.org.

Evans solicited the help of Tony Smith, a friend who does woodworking. "We put our heads together and built the library," she said. He built it out of reclaimed materials including rough-cut poplar lumber from a saw mill in Butler, Ala., to resemble her house in the country in north Alabama, she said. It even has a weathervane on top.

"Everybody loves it. It's usually full of books," Evans said.

The Little Free Library has been so popular at her office that Evans and a neighbor plan to create one in their Midtown neighborhood, as well.

Nicole Larriviere first encountered a Little Free Library outside a house in Fairhope, where she and her family were riding bikes down to the bay. "I was intrigued and enthralled by it," she said. "I thought it was such a cool concept."

The family even took out-of-town friends by the Little Free Library in Fairhope to show them what they wanted to do at their own home in midtown Mobile.

Nicole's husband James recently surprised her by starting to build one. He used three windows donated by a neighbor and added concrete boards and a sloping metal roof. They painted their library white to match their house and fence, and they painted the shelves blue, in the tradition of Southern porches. "Ours is very coastal and beachy-looking," Nicole said.

The Larrivieres officially "opened" their library, which is attached to the white picket fence outside their house on Houston Street in Midtown, this past Sunday. When she posted photos on her Facebook page, Nicole couldn't believe how many people commented.

"If I'd had a baby, I don't think I'd have had that much response," she said, laughing.

And people have been driving, walking and cycling by to pick up books from the new Houston Street Little Free Library. Even a construction worker down the street took a book this week.

Which is exactly what Nicole hoped would happen. "We want to promote literacy, but also this is about building community," she said. Nicole herself took a book out of the library that someone else traded for one of hers. She has also included a notebook inside the library where people can write mini-book reviews or make recommendations or suggestions.

The Larrivieres are still waiting on their Little Free Library sign, which will make their library official. Nicole also plans to create a Facebook page for the library.

Houston Street, where the Larrivieres have lived for the past 12 years, is already "a very social street," Nicole said, which is part of what makes living there fun for her family. "We have a network of people on our street already established," she said. "Now we can reach out to them. It's a cool little street, and we're very excited about our Little Free Library."
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