Little libraries to help keep printed page in front of kids

Sean C. Morgan

If the staff and volunteers at the Sweet Home Public Library and the Friends of the Library have their way, every child in Sweet Home will have the opportunity to keep reading during the summer.

The Friends of the Library have paid for four “little libraries” to be placed at the different schools. The little libraries are metal boxes with the message “Take a book. Leave a book.” emblazoned on the front of each.

A generalized version of these little libraries already exists on private property across Elm Street from Oak Heights Elementary School. The new little libraries will be aimed directly at elementary-level students.

The little libraries will be stocked periodically with books that children can take home. They are encouraged to return books to the libraries to share with other children, but it’s not required.

“The idea of little libraries is to keep kids reading during the summer and get books into kids’ hands,” said Rose Peda, library director. Specifically, the Friends and the library staff are trying to get books into the hands of students who aren’t able to find a way to the Public Library.

The little libraries will be placed around Foster, Hawthorne and Oak Heights, Peda said. The fourth, for Holley Elementary School, will be placed in Crawfordsville, where more children will be able to access it.

“I’m also trying to find the funding to place one at the Boys and Girls Club,” Peda said. The children there have access to books, but they cannot take them home.

Funding for the little libraries is from the Friends of the Library Gretchen Schaleger Memorial Fund, Peda said. Schaleger, a dedicated longtime Friends member, died last year.

It’s exactly the kind of project she would have wanted to see, Peda said.

“We deliver them to the schools. The kids can decorate them however they want. Then I will be getting funding (with help from the Friends) to place free books inside each of the libraries. They will be changed out weekly.”

The little libraries will be stocked June through August, Peda said.

She is considering putting book report forms inside the little libraries, she said. If she does, prizes may be mailed to children who complete book reports.

Children also may leave suggestion forms for books or types of books they would like to see left in the boxes.

Peda said she was inspired to create the program while participating in the Ford Leadership Training program currently under way. Her group built little libraries to give to nonprofits, which will use them to raise money for their organizations.

“I spoke to the superintendent,” Peda said. “He loved the idea.”

Oak Heights Principal Josh Dargis was on the scene as Peda dropped off a little library at his school Thursday.

“This is awesome. This is fantastic,” Dargis said. “I’ve seen them in other towns.”

“When kids leave in June, they’re where we want them to be. When they come back, they’ve taken several steps back. This is going to maintain the momentum (through the summer).”

Supt. Tom Yahraes said the library can pick up where the school district’s abilities to provide reading and media resources for the community ends.

“We love partnering with the Public Library as much as possible,” he said. “Continuing sustained reading over the summertime is great for kids’ imaginations, their entertainment. It also helps stop the oftentimes regression in reading skills that can occur over summer.”

The more that can be done to unplug children – and adults – from their electronic devices, the better, Yanraes said. The more they’re “holding real books and literature in their hands, the better it is for their brain development.”

Electronic devices fill in for the brain as they supply complete pictures, he said, while “reading makes your brain come alive. It interrogates us. It asks us to conjure up what a character looks like, settings.”

That strengthens minds, he said.

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