If you’ve been walking or driving around Concord lately, there’s a chance you may have seen these little structures that resemble bird houses or dog houses on people’s lawns.
It’s a craze that apparently is making its way to the Granite State – and the capital city more specifically. They’re known as little libraries, and they are pretty much what they sound like.
People build little huts to house books, and they put these huts on their property along with a sign telling passers-by to take a book, leave a book. From there, it’s in the hands of the community.
There are at least three of these little libraries in Concord. One is at East Congregational Church on Mountain Road. There’s another on Chris Moore’s property on Cypress Street, and another one sort of between two houses on Auburn Street.
The one at the church is affiliated with Little Free Library, a nonprofit organization that aims to “promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide and to build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations,” according to its website. The Auburn Street library also just joined the network last week, but the sign hasn’t been posted yet.
The organization says there are more than 32,000 Little Free Library exchanges around the world, and Concord now has two of them.
The Rev. Michael Lowry at East Congregational said they put their library out last spring around Easter. A few months before, one of the church’s members mentioned that she had heard about the program and thought it might be a good way to reach out to the neighborhood.
“It seemed like our church was a good central location for one,” Lowry said.
So the church got in touch with Little Free Libraries, received some information, paid the $40 registration fee (which gets you a sign and puts you on a map on their website) and got to work. Church member Bob Berube took on the project of building it in a style that would mimic the style of the church.
Lowry said people do use and enjoy the library, but he’s not sure exactly how much use it gets.
“The hope is that as people realize it’s there, they’ll be using it more,” he said.
There haven’t been any problems with vandalism, weather damage or stealing, Lowry said.
And it’s been a great addition to the community.
“It gives us all an opportunity to get to know one another,” he said.
Moore, who built his own little library with a friend in a garage in March, said he put his up for the same reason.
“We put it up in the spring and we had a lot of traffic,” he said. “We met a lot of neighbors that way, and that’s why we put it up. It’s a good neighborly way to get to know people.”
Moore’s library isn’t affiliated with the nonprofit – he got the idea when he was living in Colorado, where these libraries are pretty popular.
He said he and his friend didn’t use any plans or anything like that in building it, just trial and error.
“Don’t look too closely at the workmanship,” he joked. And what a joke – the thing is beautiful and intricate, and it even has a somewhat secret compartment above the books where other goodies can be traded.
Last week there was a cigar box that just had a couple stickers inside, and there was a coffee mug behind that. Must have been because all the other cool stuff was taken already.
The friend who helped him build it is a glassblower who often makes little beads and ornaments to put in the library for the taking. “Those go like crazy,” Moore said.
And the result? “Most people in the neighborhood love it,” he said. “I’ve heard a lot of awesome feedback on it.”
The library on Auburn Street, on the property of Charles and Jane Lemeland, has also gotten some good feedback.
“The kids love it, and they won’t go in the stroller without a stop at the library,” said Amy Blanchard, who stopped by the library last week with her two daughters, ages 4 and 2.
“It’s such a good idea. I wish there were more,” she said.
The library, which can now officially be referred to as a Little Free Library, is the brainchild of Matt Schmitz and his wife, Melissa Hinebauch. They live on Rockland Road, a small side street off Auburn.
Schmitz, like Moore, lived in Colorado for a little while and picked up on the phenomenon out there. He said there were about 14 little libraries in his neighborhood just outside Boulder, including one of his own.
When he came back to Concord, he wanted to do the same thing here. He built it over the summer, and it’s been on display for a few weeks now.
He wanted to make sure that the library would get plenty of use, so he asked the Lemelands if he could put it on their property since it gets more traffic. The Lemelands were happy to host it.
And it was popular as soon as it was finished.
“Almost instantaneously everyone (in the neighborhood) ran off and grabbed books to fill it,” Schmitz said.
This Little Free Library is divided into two sections: “Kids Side” and “Audults Side.” (Who doesn’t love multicolored kid-made signs?) And not that it’s a competition or anything, but this one has by far more books than either of the other two – it’s just bigger and so is capable of holding more.
Anecdotally, it also seems to be used quite heavily. Blanchard, who was browsing with her kids last week, said it seems like there’s always tons of new stuff whenever she stops by, and that in the beginning it was absolutely overflowing.
Schmitz said he might throw some lights or some other kind of decorations on it soon to spice it up a little and make people notice it more. The winter will be here soon enough, but he hopes the snow won’t keep people from coming down. One way to ensure that is to let people know about it before that season comes – that’s where we come in.
And like the stewards of the other two little libraries we found in Concord, Schmitz and Hinebauch wanted the goal to be getting the community to interact and get to know each other.
“The books is sort of the core, but it’s about the fringe benefits of having a conversation,” Schmitz said. “It’s sort of like the water cooler. Talk about a bonus.”
For more information about the Little Free Library organization, go to littlefreelibrary.org. For more information about East Congregational Church’s library, go to eastchurchucc.org/little-free-library.
