About five years ago, I approached our wonderful La Vergne Public Library director about promoting the idea and/or sponsoring the “Little Free Library” movement in our city. The funding just was not there nor was there a groundswell of support for the idea (although it remains a great idea!).

Today one of our readers posted a query on our Facebook page about whether there are limitations in the municipal code regarding setting up a Little Free Library in a neighborhood. (Thank you for asking, Loraine Flegal!) I can’t imagine there would be any limitations to setting one up, but I referred Ms. Flegal to our Planning and Codes departments to ask. I hope she follows up and gives us the answer.

What is a Little Free Library? It is a neighborhood book exchange where children, teens, and adults can stop by and pick up a book. They can replace the book with one of their own or borrow one and return it. The website says,

Little Free Libraries play an essential role by providing 24/7 access to books (and encouraging a love of reading!) in areas where books are scarce.

While we hope books aren’t really scarce in our area, you just never know what it’s like inside someone’s home. Also I think that there could be some irresponsible (mean!) actions that people who offer a Little Free Library, but you can’t let possible vandals or bad behavior keep you from doing something good. (This was the same thing I argued when I was advocating for a playground at Lake Forest Park). My point – don’t be discouraged if you hit bumps in the road if you go this route. I would love to see Little Free Libraries all over our subdivisions!!

Also I’ve seen another movement called the Little Free Pantry.  Same concept, but with the goal to help relieve hunger,

The Little Free Pantry is a grassroots, crowd-sourced solution to immediate and local need. Whether a need for food or a need to give, the Little Free Pantry facilitates neighbors helping neighbors, building community.  

So how about it, La Vergne? Is this something worth pursuing?