Sheley Wimmer is a teacher and the steward of Little Free Library book-sharing box #84277 in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Her Library is a repurposed newspaper vending box, and it’s one of ten Little Libraries that her students are creating for their community.
“This year one of our long-term projects is ‘Project Literacy–Let’s Read!’ Students used salvaged newspaper dispensers, donated by the Albuquerque Journal, in order to create Little Free Libraries, which will be placed in various communities in our city. Student teams aimed to inspire parents to work with early readers to embrace literacy, science, technology, and math by giving them free access to books,” says Wimmer.
Each Library will be registered with a charter sign on it, and decorated according to a particular theme, such as Dr. Seuss or Alice in Wonderland. But Wimmer and her students aren’t just sharing books in their Little Libraries, they’re sharing STEM kits that Library patrons can take with them, as well. Imagine visiting your neighborhood Little Library and being able to take home a mini-science project, how cool!
“Our goal is to place and monitor ten Little Libraries around the city … the first five are now complete. One of them has the theme of ‘STEM with Seuss!’ Parents are encouraged to take a free STEM project provided by our students, along with a Dr. Seuss book,” says Wimmer. “The first one has been a huge success and we’ve had to refill it with STEM kits twice. We used a lot of ideas from Little Bins Little Hands to create the kits. Our goal is to place ten Libraries in communities that really need more adult/child interaction … and this has been a real eye-opening project for our students!”
Learn how to start a Little Free Library in your neighborhood, or search the Little Free Library world map to find one near you!