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This article was published 19/12/2022 (1399 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tucked away along a fence on Rossmere Crescent sits a wooden blue and white box filled with books. For those who haven’t seen something like it before, it might look a bit out of place. But for many people in the Fraser’s Grove Park area — and others throughout Winnipeg — these charming little libraries are bringing joy and community spirit to their neighbourhoods, one chapter at a time.

“We’re encouraging community relations, we’re encouraging literacy, you know, the connection to books where you can be anything, do anything, lose yourself in the story,” said Lisa Goss, 54, who owns a little free library on Rossmere Crescent.

Little free libraries are exactly what they sound like — tiny closed-in shelves stocked with books. Many are self-made, built with scrap pieces of wood, radiating a whimsical, do-it-yourself quality.

People place them on the edge of their front lawns, nestled in a tree in their yards, or anywhere else within reach of neighbours or passersby.

Not only can people take a free book, they can also leave their own books in the library.

“It’s a connection,” Goss said. “There’ll be a box of books and neighbours will be smiling and waving. People have stopped by to say how much they appreciate it.”

Goss started her library in May 2021, when the pandemic left many stuck in their homes.

“I knew the pandemic was affecting communities, our relationships,” said Goss. “That connection was missing.”

Goss took it upon herself to fix that. Creating a library was her way of bringing that connection back, and as soon as she opened hers up, it was an instant hit.

“Within hours, there was a constant parade,” she said. “It’s somewhere to walk to in the neighbourhood. It was something to do when there were limited things to do.”

Goss said the little library was especially for important for children in her area, giving them a place to find books when libraries closed.

“They always say it takes a community to raise a child, right? So, how do we help support kids, especially during the pandemic?” said Goss.

“Now all the kids see my face; they know me, they feel safe,” she added.

And that’s exactly what little free libraries are meant to do, according to Margret Aldrich, spokesperson at littlefreelibrary.org.

“A little free library is such an easy way to connect with your neighbours and the people in your community,” said Aldrich.

Little Free Library is a non-profit organization based in St. Paul, Minn. The organization was founded in 2012, three years after Todd Bol, the co-founder, built the first-ever little free library in Hudson, Wis., in honour of his late mother.

An educator and lifelong reader, Bol’s mother was a lover of books. Bol built the library to look like a one-room schoolhouse, filled it with her books, and placed it in his front yard, Aldrich said. After seeing how his neighbours would drop off their books to share, he knew he was onto something special.

“He really thought that there was something he wanted to share with the rest of the world,” Aldrich said.

Bol died suddenly in 2018, but the movement he started continues to grow.

More than 150,000 little free libraries are scattered throughout the globe in 115 countries, Aldrich said. Each week there are about nine visits per library.

“I met more neighbours in the first week (of having a library) than I had met in three years of living there,” Aldrich said. “It really is a little bit of magic in this simple box.”

Owners of little free libraries, called stewards, can register their libraries with the organization. Stewards get a charter number and can download an app to see their library appear on a global map.

Aldrich said there are about 140 registered little free libraries in Winnipeg, but the actual number is likely much higher, since not all people register theirs.

Zana Lutfiyya, 67, has not one, but two registered libraries at her Crescentwood-area home.

As a retired education professor at the University of Manitoba, Lutfiyya has a lot of books to spare.

“I just started putting books in, culling from my own library, and very quickly, people started putting books in and dropping boxes and bags of books off on my front stoop,” Lutfiyya said.

She said she started her first library about 10 years ago after seeing a story about them in the Free Press. She got her friend, a handyman, to build one to look like TARDIS, the time machine from the science-fiction TV series Doctor Who. About two years later, she still had too many books, so she asked her friend to make her another — this time, a replica of the Wardrobe from The Chronicles of Narnia.

“The people who come regularly… just find them really charming,” she said.

Lutfiyya said business is steady at her libraries, but her regular customers tend to come on Saturday mornings.

“I love reading… it’s fun to see people stop by,” she said.

But during the pandemic, Lutfiyya said she noticed more customers than usual.

“I remember a family coming, you know, parents and two kids, and they were like, ‘The libraries are shutting down,’ so they stocked up,” she said.

The pandemic made the movement take off. While about 15,000 libraries were registered each year before 2020, about 20,000 were registered each year during 2020 and after, Aldrich said.

“I think that people are looking for a way to feel connected to their communities, and a little free library offered that kind of safe distance, yet warmhearted feeling of community,” said Aldrich.

Cherie Brakel was another one of those people who registered a library during the pandemic.

It’s always been Brakel’s dream to own a little library, so much so that she had been stocking books in her attic for years, she said.

“We’ve been able to have all sorts of wonderful conversations with people we wouldn’t have otherwise met or been able to connect with,” Brakel said. “I just love everything about it.”

Her whole family was involved in the design and construction of the library at her home in North Kildonan. Brakel’s dad, who used to work in construction, was hanging onto an old piece of wood he once found at a building site, so they used that as the post. In their attic, they found old cedar shingles from their 100-plus-year-old house’s original roof, which they used for the roof of the library.

“It ended up being quite the family affair,” she said. “It’s just kind of fun how we found these neat, reclaimed pieces that have history connected to our family and our home.”

Madison Herget-Schmidt, a steward in East Kildonan, started her library last summer. After seeing them pop up in her neighbourhood, she knew she had to have one herself.

“As soon as I had a house, I knew that I wanted one,” said Herget-Schmidt, 26.

Her library is also registered.

“Looking at the map on the app, it’s really cool because there’s so many of them,” she said. “I really like contributing to this, and it’s super fun seeing especially kids come by and take books and look at books. It’s really neat.”

For Goss, supporting children in our communities needs to be a continuous effort.

“It’s something that we need to do ongoing, to kind of support learning, support reading, support that connection, that feeling of safety,” said Goss.

“It’s worthwhile,” she added. “It’s an act of kindness, right? When you invest in community.”

fpcity@freepress.mb.ca