Little Libraries sprout in Dansville neighbourhood The project is designed to inspire a love of reading, build community and spark creativity. One can take books, read them and provide new books.

The Dansville Rotary Club (New York, US – D 7120) has worked hard on bringing Little Libraries to the area.

You will see them sprouting up at Noyes Health, Scottsburg, Cummingsville, and North Dansville Town Hall this week.

On May 31 Dansville Rotary Club members Jon Shay, Edgar Schmidt and Nancy Nice displayed the first Little Library at Scottsburg.

The Little Library project started in 2009 when Wisconsin Rotarian Todd Bol created the first one in order to honour the memory of his mother.

Bol created the concept of Take One, Leave One, which supplies the box with fresh books for the community to read.

This grassroots approach to reading has taken off like wildfire, and there are now grants to help other Rotarians get started.

Dansville Rotary Club President Edgar Schmidt got his hands on the Little Free Libraries Grant about a year ago, and he has been proud to see it emerge in the community.

It is a matching grant, so the Rotary pays for half of the project.

Little Free Libraries are designed to inspire a love of reading, build community, and spark creativity in the neighbourhood.

People can take the books, read them, return them, or provide them with new books.

“We saw this happening in other communities, and wanted to do it here,” Schmidt said. “This is happening all over the world.”

Nice said that they asked to put up the libraries at all the locations mentioned, and that she and her nephew, Lucus Nice were out digging the holes for the poles.

“We are putting the first one up now, and will be working on getting the others up,” she said.

“We will leave the boxes off for a week in order to make sure the poles are secure. After that we will put the boxes up with all the books.”

Shay said that there are a tonne of books available for all four locations, and there is no need to worry about running out.

Nice added that Rotary members will be responsible for the libraries, so if anything happens one of them can be contacted to fix it immediately.

“The Rotary members are in charge of this project,” she said.

“If anything happens will we get it fixed immediately. We will make sure there is a good supply of books. We want this to be a community thing that is available for everyone to enjoy.”

Dansville Rotary members Lisa Johnson and Barb Frazer worked hard on getting everything ready for the grant process.

The communities can enjoy sharing and reading books at any of the four locations.

There is something for everyone, so children, youth, and adults are all welcome to participate.

Source: Genesee Country Express