Dog park to get library: City OKs second Little Free Library

Published 8:34 pm Tuesday, March 3, 2015

COURTESY OF LITTLE FREE LIBRARY LITTLE LIBRARY: This Little Free Library’s design is a representative sample of how many Little Free Libraries look. Designs vary, but many of the designs attempt to replicate schoolhouses.

COURTESY OF LITTLE FREE LIBRARY
LITTLE LIBRARY: This Little Free Library’s design is a representative sample of how many Little Free Libraries look. Designs vary, but many of the designs attempt to replicate schoolhouses.

Another Little Free Library is coming to Washington, if a specific condition is met.

The Washington City Council, during its meeting Monday, authorized the installation of a Little Free Library at the city’s dog park adjacent to Jack’s Creek — if it looks like the Little Free Library on the western end of the city’s waterfront.

That one, which looks like a miniature, old-timey schoolhouse, rests on top of a post. It was erected by the Washington Noon Rotary. The first such library was built in Hudson, Wis., in 2009. That project was inspired by Todd Bol, who built it to honor his mother, a teacher who loved to read, according to the Little Free Library website.

Monica Ferrari sought permission for the Little Free Library at the dog park. She did not attend the meeting.

During discussion concerning Ferrari’s request, Councilman Doug Mercer said he had no problem authorizing the library at the dog park or such libraries in the city, as long as they meet one condition.

“They all should look alike,” Mercer said.

“My concern is, is this Little Free Library going to look like the one that we have downtown? I don’t want to have one kind of library here and one kind of library there, and the first thing you know we’ve got a hodgepodge of … facilities,” Mercer said during the discussion.

Dot Moate, a Noon Rotary member, said that organization has no connection with the effort to install the library at the dog park. She agrees with Mercer when it comes to that library’s design.

Kristi Hardison Roberson, supervisor of the city’s parks and recreation facilities and programs, said the city’s Recreation Advisory Committee supported Ferrari’s request.

“I’m not exactly sure about the look of it. My assumption, which is not a good thing, is they would look the same and probably not the same colors,” Roberson said.

Council member William Pitt asked about the timeframe regarding putting the library at the dog park.

“As soon as she got permission — and I make sure that it matches,” Roberson said.

Councilman Bobby Roberson replied, “That’s easy enough.”

Ferrari provides an explanation of how the idea of placing the library at the dog park developed.

“I have been involved in education for many years and now retired, I find myself either reading more books or volunteering in downtown Washington. I came across this idea after hearing a presentation by Noon Rotary at a City of Washington Parks and Recreation Board meeting a few months ago,” Ferrari wrote in an email. “The Noon Rotary requested to place a small structure called the Little Free Library, on the waterfront.”

She continued: “The idea is to promote literacy by providing a few books and encouraging people to take a book and leave a book for their use and others. This idea appealed to my sense of giving back to my community again. (myself and Rebecca Clark, initiated the Washington Off Leash Dog Park in 2008 and by Sept. 2009, it was off and running) My husband Justin built the Little Free Library with his own plans and I decorated it with paint. We thought the area of the Dog Park would be a good spot to place the library. There is much foot traffic on Brown Street and it will be placed outside of the dog park fence for easier access. Justin and I will maintain the library. The newest Little Free Library will have a Charter Sign showing that it is registered and on the world map. This will make it officially one of the thousands worldwide and one of three in Washington, NC.”

 

 

 

Sidebar

 

Little Free Library history

 

After Todd Bol built his first miniature library and opened it, the concept quickly gained in popularity. He built more, giving them away.

The concept transformed into a plan — with youth and community development educator Rick Brooks — to construct 2,510 Little Free Libraries — one more than the total number of public libraries built by Andrew Carnegie in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Within a four-year period, nearly 15,000 Little Free Libraries had been built across the world.

“It’s a ‘take a book, return a book’ gathering place where neighbors share their favorite literature and stories. In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring back another book to share. You can, too!” reads the Little Free Library website.

To be officially called a Little Free Library, a free book exchange must have an official sign, number and/or listing on the Little Free Library Map of the World.

About Mike Voss

Mike Voss is the contributing editor at the Washington Daily News. He has a daughter and four grandchildren. Except for nearly six years he worked at the Free Lance-Star in Fredericksburg, Va., in the early to mid-1990s, he has been at the Daily News since April 1986.
Journalism awards:
• Pulitzer Prize for Meritorious Public Service, 1990.
• Society of Professional Journalists: Sigma Delta Chi Award, Bronze Medallion.
• Associated Press Managing Editors’ Public Service Award.
• Investigative Reporters & Editors’ Award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Public Service Award, 1989.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Investigative Reporting, 1990.
All those were for the articles he and Betty Gray wrote about the city’s contaminated water system in 1989-1990.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Investigative Reporting, 1991.
• North Carolina Press Association, Third Place, General News Reporting, 2005.
• North Carolina Press Association, Second Place, Lighter Columns, 2006.
Recently learned he will receive another award.
• North Carolina Press Association, First Place, Lighter Columns, 2010.
4. Lectured at or served on seminar panels at journalism schools at UNC-Chapel Hill, University of Maryland, Columbia University, Mary Washington University and Francis Marion University.

email author More by Mike