Steward Spotlight: Dra. Katia Padilla Bautista
Dra. Katia Padilla Bautista grew up in Morelia, a southern city in Mexico. She recalls her parents would only buy her a book if she got good grades. “Every time I earned a book, I remember reading it slowly because they only gave grades every 2 months!”...
Steward Spotlight: Olivia and Sophia Thornburg
“We think it is important that everyone has access to books and not everyone in our community has easy access to books,” say Olivia and Sophia Thornburg. For their Girl Scout Silver Award, they wanted to do something that would not only increase book...
Steward Spotlight: Pam Millington
Little Free Library #4095 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, doesn’t just have one steward…. it has twelve. Creating the library and maintaining it are a neighborhood effort. “Years ago I heard about little libraries and brought up the idea at our neighborhood...
Steward Spotlight: Mary and John Hill
John and Mary Hill enjoy doing things to benefit their community. That’s why a few years back, they founded a food pantry on the campus of Front Range Community College, where they both worked. Then in 2018, Mary was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and they...
Steward Spotlight: Tashay Green
Tashay Green runs a Chicago-based book-sharing program called “Books on the L,” so named for Chicago’s public transit system, the “L.” When the city issued a shelter-in-place order in early 2020, Tashay had to put a hold on things, but...
Steward Spotlight: Loida Casares
When Loida Casares heard a story about the city of Milwaukee, Wisconsin, placing book-sharing boxes in laundromats, she thought it was a genius idea. “I already had a Little Free Library of my own, outside my house, so I was already a library steward and...
Steward Spotlight: Autumn Stephen
“Starting a Little Free Library is an incredibly rewarding and satisfying experience,” says Autumn Stephens. She shares how she and her husband created ‘Library Day’ for their neighborhood in this Steward Spotlight blog post.
Steward Spotlight: Bob Wanzel
In 2019, Bob Wanzel, his wife Barb, and their Bible study group helped build a pocket park in their College Hill neighborhood in North St. Louis, Missouri. Then they added Little Free Library #84421 to the park, with a focus on sharing children’s books....
Why Sharing Diverse Books in Little Free Libraries Matters
This summer, readers are flooding Little Free Library book-sharing boxes with diverse books that amplify Black voices. Sarah Kamya, a New York high-school counselor and Little Free Library steward, is a champion of this movement. She began filling her local little...
Steward Spotlight: Rascona’s Rascals Daycare
Like many of us, Layla Rascona and her husband Anthony felt the toll of social distancing during COVID-19. “We felt super isolated. We spent more time at home and in our yard and I noticed a lot of new faces in other yards that I hadn’t met yet,”...
Steward Spotlight: Nwamaka Unaka
Nwamaka Unaka has read a book to her daughter every night since the day she was born. One night they were watching a YouTube video together about Little Free Library and her daughter asked if they could start their own for their Houston, Texas, neighborhood. She had...
In Uncertain Times, Little Free Library Stewards Lend a Hand
Community engagement and sharing with others are at the heart of the Little Free Library movement. In just a few days, the spirit of sharing in Little Free Libraries has shifted to accommodate different and increased needs in communities all over the world. By now you...
Steward Spotlight: Prev Dole
Take a stroll down Kirk Avenue in San Jose, California, and you’ll discover a reader’s delight: a waystation of sorts with a comfortable bench, street lamp, and no fewer than four Little Free Library book-sharing boxes, festively adorned with a sign...
Impact Library Story: Julien Zeitouni
“Earlier this year, I visited Washington DC, and stumbled upon these cute little houses filled with books. Some streets even had several of them. I liked the idea right away, and thought it would be a great addition to my neighborhood of Ocean Hill, in Brooklyn,...
Steward Spotlight: Youth Potential South Africa
“There are not many books in this vast rural area of South Africa and no bookshops at all. The average literacy level is very low. The majority of people living here have not completed their school education. The area has one of the largest economic inequalities...
Steward Spotlight: Children’s Communication Center
When Lori Savage Grayson first saw a photo of a Little Free Library book box in 2014, she knew she wanted to start one. As the Founder and Director of Children’s Communication Center in Tallahassee, Florida, Lori knew the big benefits of exposing children to...
Steward Spotlight: Neighbor to Neighbor Literacy Project
“We were blown away by the positive response. We believe that a citywide network of Little Free Library [book boxes] can help to create positive interactions and engagement across all our diverse neighborhoods and can help break down barriers between...
Steward Spotlight: Victoria Kibler
Victoria Kibler has a very busy Little Free Library, and it’s not because she’s in a great location. Her Library (charter #8252) is on a quiet cul-de-sac in a neighborhood without sidewalks in Claremont, California. Yet, she estimates that about 50 books...
Steward Spotlight: Tara Choate
This post is part of Little Free Library’s steward spotlight series! Being a Little Free Library steward can yield some surprising insights. On her Little Free Library’s first anniversary, steward Tara Choate reflected on what she’d learned over the...
Steward Spotlight: Katie Larson
This post is part of Little Free Library’s Steward Spotlight series! For Katie Larson, starting a Little Free Library was a natural extension of her job as a seventh grade language arts teacher. Katie said, “I’m crazy obsessed with this Library and...
Librarian Transforms 110-Year-Old Tree into Jaw-Dropping Little Free Library
Talk about a “giving tree”! When a 110-year-old cottonwood tree in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, needed to be removed, Sharalee Armitage Howard—a librarian, artist, and bookbinder—transformed it into an amazing Little Free Library. Now, instead of providing...
Steward Spotlight: Adam Seelig
This post is part of Little Free Library’s Steward Spotlight series! Adam Seelig, a technology education teacher at John G. Borden Middle School in Wallkill, New York, found a creative way to bring five Little Free Libraries to his small community: make it a summer...