Libby MacDonald likens a little free library to the Stone Soup fable, in which members of a community all share ingredients to make a meal. But instead of food, it’s books.
“It has been such a community project every step of the way,” said MacDonald who has been the lead caretaker of The Cannon Street Little Free Library for the past six years.
The library is a painted, house-shaped box shaded by the side of MacDonald’s house on Cannon Street East. It has the words “take a book, leave a book,” and is filled with a variety of titles. On one Monday in May, the library included a mix of novels, comics, children’s books and bottles of bubble solution.
The library itself was donated by a local shop class, MacDonald said, and she hadn’t even finished setting it up before neighbours filled it with books. “People took to it instantly.”
WATCH | Little free library stewards talk about promoting inclusion:
Ahead of Little Free Library Week, Hamilton stewards Lorraine Zandi-Wong and Donna Tiqui-Shebib share why they love little libraries, and how they’re planning to mark the occasion.
The little free library community — there are hundreds of these small, outdoor free book dispensaries in neighbourhoods across the country — marks a week dedicated to celebrating their craft, starting Sunday.
In the lead up to the week, several library Hamilton stewards say their book boxes have brought them closer to their neighbours and encouraged a love of reading.
MacDonald said she used to see little free libraries around Toronto when living there before coming to Hamilton.
“When I moved here, one of the reasons I was so stoked to get a corner house was so I could have a library,” she told CBC Hamilton.
Hamilton group 1 of 3 to receive U.S. grant
MacDonald has been nominated for Little Free Library’s Todd H. Bol stewards award, named after the Wisconsin resident who built the first Little Free Library in 2009 in the front yard of his home and died in 2018.
She is also a co-administrator of the Hamilton, Ontario Little Free Library Facebook group, in which library stewards and volunteers share tips and tricks, photos and stories. There are dozens of little free libraries in Hamilton.
On Saturday, the group is holding a stewards and volunteer meet-up at the Norman Pinky Lewis Recreation Centre to mark the start of Little Free Library Week.
The Hamilton group is one of three in Canada to receive US$100 from American non-profit Little Free Library, which promotes little libraries across North America. Stewards can register to receive charter numbers and have their libraries appear on a map and in an app the organization maintains.
Two more Canadian groups also received grants: One in Newmarket, Ont., and one in London, Ont., community engagement manager Brianna Stapleton Welch told CBC Hamilton.
“We really just want to celebrate little free libraries in Hamilton,” Donna Tiqui-Shebib, an Ancaster resident who co-manages the Facebook group with MacDonald. “It’s all part of building community and giving back.”
The space around the library has developed over the years, MacDonald said. It now includes a seed exchange and community garden, children’s library, and dog library featuring pet supplies and water.
MacDonald describes her neighbourhood as “a book desert” where people lack access to books, saying her library is regularly “picked clean.”
Elora Nault and Aiden Kobald, both 11, volunteer at the little library on Cannon. MacDonald called them “enthusiastic friends” to the project, noting they’ve helped with placing books, “busted their backs” gardening, and helped decorate the library and surrounding space.
It’s important work, Nault said. “If people can’t afford books, they still have the ability to read.”
“Our library is a great point of access for the community, Ancaster steward Lorraine Zandi-Wong said.
“It’s a great place to stop and chat. It’s also a great place to talk about inclusion and accessibility. There are books there for everyone.”
At Saturday’s meet-up, she said, they’ll be featuring the book I Belong: Can I Play?” by Niagara author Michael Jacques, who has an intellectual disability and autism, and can’t read or write.
“Books allow us to step into the shoes of someone else,” Zandi-Wong said.
Decolonial Little Library new in Hamilton
That idea is central to the Decolonial Little Library in Hamilton’s Kirkendall neighbourhood. Stewarded by Madeline Wilson-Shaw, who’s Haudenausaunee, and Ryan McMahon, who’s Annishnaabe, it features books by Indigenous authors from a decolonial perspective.
The repainted newspaper box sports art featuring the plastic “cowboy and Indian” figurines many children of a certain age grew up playing with, McMahon said — a play on such toys and stories being a precedent for Indigenous storytelling.
The couple say their family has worried about the library putting a target on them, but the community largely seems to have embraced it since they set it up last summer.
Unlike many little free libraries which draw from a wider pool of titles, Wilson Shaw and McMahon say they’ve had to strictly review and curate their offerings to make sure they fit the theme. Initially, they stocked it with a lot of their own favourites.
They now have about 180 titles in circulation and receive community donations. Sometimes, McMahon said, they get books they think are racist, which has led to important discussions with donors about why they don’t want to include them. They’ve also received books they didn’t know about before and really liked.
One woman told McMahon she didn’t really understand reconciliation until she’d read more about it at their library, he said.
“I think the best way for non-Indigenous people to understand the Indigenous experiences, to read it from Indigenous people, to hear the words themselves,” Wilson Shaw said.