Tiny homes have been popping up throughout the city. The structures often built to resemble bird or dog houses but coming in all sizes shapes and colours usually include signs that invite passersby to “Take a book leave a book.” Recently celebrating its second anniversary in Calgary more than 100 Little Free Libraries have been installed by residents and organizations just as diverse as their library boxes.
Artist and furniture maker Dion Brake of Como Designs answered a call a few months ago for volunteers to design and build Little Free Libraries to be installed in his community of Westgate. Not only was it an opportunity for Brake to put his art on display it was a chance to become engaged with his neighbourhood. He says if it stops someone from playing on their phone for a few minutes and picking up a book instead that’s great.
Roman Katsnelson who spent a month designing and building a Little Free Library with his children admits he initially had reservations about installing it on his Canyon Meadows property but it has been warmly embraced by his neighbours. In the first month Katsnelson found notes thanking him and his family. The pop-up library has become a space where conversations strike up neighbours — otherwise only known by face — become acquainted and new friendships are formed.
Katsnelson a Calgary Family Services program manager was inspired to join the initiative after speaking to Cheri Macauley who is a member of the mayor’s civic engagement committee and one of the first Calgary residents to open a Little Free Library.
In a city where just 60 per cent of Calgarians report a sense of connection to their community (according to the 2012 Calgary Foundation Vital Signs report) Macauley says small things like making free books available on a front lawn can go a long way. “People are really eager for a sense of community. And they’re so joyful about sharing books and ideas at this quirky place in the neighbourhood where they can bump into each other.”
Macauley learned about the movement through its website (littlefreelibrary.org) which documents the spread of LFLs since the first one was installed in Wisconsin in 2009. Now an official non-profit organization as of January 2014 the total number of registered LFLs in the world was estimated to be nearly 15000. The website has a map of locations as well as designs and plans for building your own.
Macauley says it didn’t take long for the little red box she installed on her Brentwood property in May 2012 to become what she calls a “community bumping space.” From school children to elderly residents to mothers pushing strollers a steady stream of people visit the bread-box-size library throughout the day.
“The day we got it up and filled it with books it was cleaned out by noon” recalls Macauley. “I thought ‘Uh-oh what have we done?’”
Since then apart from adding a book every couple of weeks most often she and her husband have to take books out because the box is too full. The selection of books (which runs the gamut from children’s books to novels to language books or even instructional books) usually turns over about once a week.
At present Calgary has the largest and fastest-growing network of Little Free Libraries in Canada.
“Some days it’s a mystery to me why it’s grown so fast in Calgary” says Macauley. But she says “I love it.” And it seems so do Calgarians.
A Federation of Calgary Communities competition to donate an LFL to a deserving group or community organization was so popular that instead of one library the federation ended up building and giving away eight.
Calgary Reads launched its own Little Free Library program with a “do crew” from CBC Radio — the goal is to have one LFL in each of Calgary’s 147 communities by 2025 although organizers think that goal may be reached much sooner.
Even the Downtown Calgary BRZ (business revitalization zone) is on board retrofitting out-of-use payphone boxes along Stephen Avenue to become makeshift libraries which are stocked weekly.
Katsnelson thinks these initiatives are particularly important for suburban communities such as Canyon Meadows. “We get into our garages and into our cars and we interact each other as vehicles and not as people. Anything we can do to have a way safe and low barrier way to interact with each other is great.”
