In an act of goodwill, my father rang a bell for three hours on Christmas Eve for the Salvation Army to collect money for charity. I stood by as his wool coat rubbed my arm red under the Fred Meyer lights. I was old enough to know why we were there but the hanging red tin let everyone else in on the idea. We were doing something good and would soon be home. But what if we could do more, perhaps even from our homes?
Let’s look to another act of goodwill. It starts with a door in the front yard of a certain house on Radcliffe Road. MaryAnn Dlugosch doesn’t lock this tiny glass door because it opens to a watertight, three-shelved, lending library for the community.
“My library is always open, at least in the summer,” she said as we sat in her home. “I guess I would call them free libraries.”
Dlugosch is one of many silent custodians of little free libraries across the U.S. Todd Bol began the Little Free Library movement in 2009 in Hudson, Wisconsin. He built a model of a one room schoolhouse to honor his mother who was a teacher who loved to read. He filled the model with books and placed it in his front yard so neighbors could freely come by for something to read. The idea spread across the world. By June 2016, there were over 40,000 of these tiny libraries worldwide.
[Little Free Library trend hits Juneau]
Some of these free libraries are peppered throughout the Juneau community and offer a dealer’s choice in the world of literature.
“I try to put out a bit of everything,” Dlugosch said. “ I know people are coming by and taking the books I put out.”
She’s right. Folks visit her shelves on a regular basis.
“I was given two boxes of books from neighbors next door and those are almost gone. People are reading these books, and that is the key point,” she said.
Essentially, all public libraries are free. The main difference here is that you can keep your text for however long you wish. With Dlugosch’s library and the others that scatter Juneau, there is no need to return anything. Pay-it-forward is the name of this game. She keeps her shelves stacked with children’s literature, teen thrillers and older classics. Something for everyone is a common theme when it comes to promoting a takeaway trove of the written word.
Dlugosch said there weren’t many specific books that continually popped up in the stacks, but noted that children’s books are the most popular. It makes sense. In a residential setting couples walk by with their nieces, nephews or own children and seek out the books they remember as kids.
“Boxcar Children is always around,” she said.
This one encounter with Dlugosch’s stash of literature propelled me to seek out the other free libraries in town. As far as I’ve been able to determine there are four small islands of lending. Beside Dlugosch’s, there is a library located near the Governor’s Mansion, DeCherney’s on Pioneer Street in Douglas and then one located next to the prison in Lemon Creek.
While there is no fifth library in town, there could be if the reader wishes to particpate in some literature sharing. In fact, the Little Free Library’s official website (littlefreelibrary.org) offers beginners to the literacy friendly neighborhood a few tips on how you (yes, you) can start the process. They sell premade libraries, information on how to build your own library and even have an online map to show where all the registered libraries can be found across the world or just in your community.
• Freelancer Alex Marvel lives and writes in Juneau.
