The Little Free Library in Eau Claire’s Boyd Park was donated to the Eastside Hill Neighborhood Association to help spread the project to our area. And! Three more libraries are or will be installed in Eau Claire soon.

In Eau Claire’s Boyd Park, there’s a little wooden box affixed to a post. It looks like a tiny, rustic cabin. The small wooden sign on top asks you to “Take a Book, Leave a Book,” and if you open the front door, you’ll find a petite collection of gently used books, ranging from crime novels and gardening manuals to the epic works of Dr. Seuss. Local people have left books in there. And you can take one ... as long as you leave one.

The little book box is the city’s first “Little Free Library,” and it’s part of a statewide program started by Todd Bol of Hudson and Rick Brooks of Madison. Similar structures can be found in communities across Wisconsin (and beyond), each of them encouraging people to come together, connect, and share a common goal. That goal can be anything from simple book-swapping to literacy promotion to a notable increase in water-cooler style conversation amongst neighbors. Bol and Brooks (and everyone else behind the program) aim to achieve all that and more.

Started in 2009 after Bol made one for his own yard, the Little Free Library program seems to have exploded this past summer. People and organizations can purchase a library from LittleFreeLibrary.org (available in styles ranging from “Amish Barn Wood Cabin” to “Original Art Deluxe”) or get plans to build their own. The Boyd Park library was donated to the city after Bol approached Volume One Magazine, who then referred him to the Eastside Hill Neighborhood Association.

Why did Eau Claire get so lucky? Well, Bol’s said he’s looking to spread the project across the state, and Eau Claire seemed like a terrific outpost for this region. It doesn’t hurt that Bol’s son attends UW-Eau Claire and works downtown. Apparently, it was the younger Bol’s idea to build one for Eau Claire.

Bol’s son built it using 100+-year-old wood from a barn in Ontario, Wis., wood from his grandfather’s barn, and repurposed metal. The doorknob is an antique screwdriver handle. Each mini-library is just as unique. Some notable ones have been based on a canoe, a bee hive, a Swiss Chalet, and a Frank Lloyd Wright design.

 

The city’s second library is located on S. Farwell Street and is maintained by the Literacy Volunteers of the Chippewa Valley. And! Two more libraries will be installed in Eau Claire soon.

But why stop at just one? Within weeks of the Eastside Hill installation, Bol installed a second Little Free Library for Literacy Volunteers of the Chippewa Valley, in front of the Wilson Education Building at 510 S. Farwell St. And by the time you read this, two more libraries will be installed around town, as well.

The stewardship of the Little Free Library has gotten people talking and working together in a way that will hopefully foster future collaboration and local pride. – Eastside Hill Neighborhood Association

Location is important. Though Bol suggests installing libraries right on a good corner in the heart of a neighborhood, the Eastside Hill worked with city officials to secure their library’s spot in Boyd Park – in a flowerbed between the park’s multi-use building and the footbridge spanning the Eau Claire River. Community events and foot/bike traffic from the Chippewa River State Trail provide great exposure.

That said, the Little Free Library in Boyd park has already survived some unwanted attention, having been vandalized on three occasions. In one instance, the door was actually ripped right off. However, in all cases, Eastside Hill neighbors immediately repaired the damage, demonstrating the catalyzing effect these little wooden boxes can have on a community. As with many neighborhood projects, it gives people a focal point, something to care about and rally around. According to Eastside Hill Neighborhood Association members, the stewardship of the Little Free Library has gotten people talking and working together in a way that will hopefully foster future collaboration and local pride.

And it would appear the micro-library movement is just getting started, as a mere five-minute talk with someone like Todd Bol yields a mountain of future plans and amazing ideas. The “build your own” concept alone could place libraries in locations well beyond Wisconsin as organizers have received plan requests from places as far flung as Sri Lanka (new plans for an affordable model are in the works). Plans for essay contests, art competitions, and networks of hospital installations are also underway, not to mention building partnerships with Native American artists.

It may turn out that Eau Claire’s own collection of little libraries is merely the tip of a literacy- and community-building iceberg. So don’t be shy – take a book. Leave a book. And see what happens.

Find out more at littlefreelibrary.org