The Little Free Library

The Art of the Little Free Library: Its Always The Season To Read

Here's Little Library #1

Little Free Libraries started in Hudson and Madison, Wisconsin.

The originators of this social enterprise are Todd Bol and Rick Brooks, both of whom have several decades of entrepreneurial and international experience. They first met in 2009 while exploring the benefits of green practices in small businesses, discovering that they shared a commitment to service and the quality of community life around the world.

The very first Little Library was built in the memory of June A. Bol. It sits in the front yard of a home above the St. Croix River in Hudson, Wisconsin.

As you can see, it is meant to look like a one-room school house. It's full of books about gardening and community life. Not a drop of water has trickled inside...but books have come and gone since its first week by the river.

Get the idea? Take a book, leave a book. Leave a note!

Give the gift of knowledge through reading. READ MORE !

A Love Letter to the Central Library

A Love Letter to the Central Library
Through Life’s Changes, the Downtown Landmark Remains
LA Downtown News: 11.23.2011 by Anne Marie Ruff

DOWNTOWN LOS ANGELES - I love the Central Library. For almost two decades and through many life changes, the library has been a constant, like a good friend.

Obviously I’m not alone — this resplendent repository of art, literature and knowledge thrives on the multiplicity of people who pass through the doors and partake of what the library has to offer. I’m just one of many for whom the Downtown building has an inexorable hold.

I first met the Central Library when I was attending UCLA. Back in the days when the card catalog had just graduated to a computer, the Central Library offered books for my research papers not to be found in the URL (the decidedly un-cyber University Research Library). I found in the long block between Grand Avenue and Flower Street a safe place in an otherwise intimidating Downtown.

I know I am not alone in my passion for this place. Every day I see dozens of people, many marginalized or nearly discarded by the rest of the city, who eagerly await the opening of the library doors. In its rich rooms and elegant halls, they find refuge, rest, and who knows, maybe even help with their reading or computer skills.

More recently, I have been thrilled to know the library in yet another way. I provided two copies of my first novel — some of which was written within its walls — to the library’s fiction department. So now not only is the library part of me, but I am part of the library. READ MORE !

Anne Marie Ruff’s recently published first novel, Through These Veins, chronicles the development of a fictional cure for AIDS. All profits benefit Doctors Without Borders and the Ethiopian Institute for the Conservation of Biodiversity.

Libraries Are Essential Public Goods

Why It's Time To Speak Up For Our Libraries
Huffington Post: 11.15.2011 by Andrew Losowsky

Libraries are essential public goods.

Like our public parks and museums, public libraries are free, non-commercial gathering places for everyone, regardless of income. If information is power, then libraries are the essence of democracy and freedom. In these times of economic difficulty, more people are using them than ever, to do more than merely check out books.

Yet our nation's public libraries appear to be under threat by a litany of cuts, forced upon them by state and local committees, cuts that often began before the recent economic downturn. In a survey conducted by the Library Journal, 93% of large libraries reported having laid off staff, cut their opening hours, or both. In several states, including Indiana and Michigan, library branches have permanently closed their doors.

In a new Huffington Post series called Libraries In Crisis, we'll be looking at how today's libraries are about more than books. We'll show how they can be a community resource where reliable information and guidance is provided, free of bias and commercial influence.

This occasional series will look at the economic reasons for the current situation, and its consequences throughout the country. It will showcase models for library evolution, and hear from prominent voices about what makes a viable and vital library system. READ MORE !

Read the first piece in this series, "The Death Of The Public Library?"

November - Picture Book Month

Picture Book Month is an international initiative to designate November as Picture Book Month, encouraging everyone to celebrate literacy with picture books.


Every day in November, there will be a new post from a picture book champion explaining why he/she thinks picture books are important.
We are doing this because in this digital age where people are predicting the coming death of print books, picture books (the print kind) need love. And the world needs picture books. There’s nothing like the physical page turn of a beautifully crafted picture book.

Join the celebration and party with a picture book !

Celebrate National Family Literacy Day 2011

Today is National Family Literacy Day.

Since 1994, November 1 has been a day of celebrating the wonders of family literacy.

November is also National Family Literacy Month, so today kicks off a month-long effort to celebrate and remind people of the importance of families learning together.

Wonderopolis is taking part in the celebration with a very special Wonder of the Day: #394 What Can Children Teach Their Parents?

Family literacy is all about families learning together. Of course, that often means that it’s the parents who are teaching the children.

Most parents can tell you, though, that they’ve learned some important lessons from their children, too. It’s this interplay between parents and children that makes family literacy so powerful.

After you read the Wonder of the Day, make sure you chime in with what you’ve learned from the children in your life! Post a comment, or share your thoughts on Facebook or Twitter.

And if you’re looking for a way to celebrate literacy throughout the entire year, download NCFL’s Celebrate Literacy Calendar. This calendar offers suggestions for fun activities to do with your children each month.