Little library system of give and take
January 27, 2015
By Anne Halliwell
The Little Free Library at the corner of Scott and Upper streets has vibrant painted books and leaves on the outside and bright spines of paperbacks visible through the latching door at the front.
It stands on a short pole about torso-height between the bus shelter and the stop sign along Upper Street.
Kristen Perry, an associate professor of literacy in the College of Education, said she saw an article from 2012 in the Lexington Herald-Leader about other Little Free Libraries in the city. She contacted former YMCA executive director Wendi Keene for advice about getting started.
“I thought it was a great idea … in particular for literacy professors,” Perry said. “(It’s) a way to connect to the community.”
Keene, who donated an unused library house, also developed a collaboration between the firehouse across the street and the College of Education when the addition went up in the fall.
Lieutenant Mike Keene, the husband of Wendi Keene who works the engine for that firehouse, said that the fire department “can’t take credit for a lot, since Dr. Perry and the people over there do a lot of the work.”
Mike Keene said both he and his wife believe strongly in literacy, as Wendi Keene originally planned to put the Little Free Library on YMCA property, then lost the space.
“I’ve got two boys … one graduated from UK and another from Georgetown,” Mike Keene said. “We read to them all the time … that’s just been our passion.”
Perry and the College of Education believe that reading should be accessible, she said. To that end, the library was originally stocked with everything from children’s books, informational texts, comics and nonfiction books.
“The idea is that you ‘take a book, leave a book,’” Perry said. “We wanted it to be something to reach a wider community.”
On Monday evening, a Slovenian paperback, “Ristat i mitt hjartan,” had been left alongside Willie Ruff’s “A Call to Assembly” and a Hallmark collection “In Praise of Mothers.”
There were 15 slim, available books in all.
Perry said the collection has been cleared out a few times and that the “cross-section” of people at the bus stop seemed interested in what had been offered.
The firefighters at the station have pitched in by checking to make sure the books are stocked, Mike Keene said, making quick repairs, or just removing a book to read during downtime.
“If kids get books, then they’re going to read, or their parents are going to read to them,” Mike Keene said. “The important thing is to ‘take a book.’ We keep it stocked, you can take a book and bring it back or just read one.”
