The near Westside of Syracuse is blessed to have a public library at the edge of its community. The Mundy Library, located on Geddes Street, has done a wonderful job serving hundreds of families each year. Unfortunately, not everyone takes advantage of the library, and many in the neighborhood feel it is too far to walk to. So what access to books do they then have? Sadly, very little. Recently a group of people gathered for a series of workshops to change that and to bring a project called Little Free Libraries to the near Westside.
The Little Free Libraries in the near Westside is a collaborative project between Syracuse University’s iSchool, the College of Visual and Performance Art (VPA) and residents of Syracuse’s near Westside (NWS). This project grew out of a late summer tweet from Jill Hurst-Wahl, incoming Director of the Library and Information Science graduate program at the iSchool. She posted an article about Little Free Libraries being built in Wisconsin and wondered if we could do the same here in Syracuse. The idea quickly caught the imagination of many and the project was formed.
Similar to the goal in Wisconsin, the NWS-LFL project goal is not intended to take the place of the full range of resources and services available in our public libraries; ratherthe intent is to promote literacy and conversation in the community. The libraries’ theme is to “take a book and leave a book”, encouraging books to cycle throughout the neighborhood.
The NWS-LFL project was launched on Saturday, October 15th with a day-long, free workshop bringing together librarians, designers and members of the near Westside community. Approximately 20 participants, including students and faculty from the iSchool and VPA, Maarten Jacobs and residents of the NWS attended. Library and information science students focused on issues related to community collection development and establishing connections between these structures and local public libraries. Design students planned and lead the design of compelling, weather-proof structures based on themes identified by NWS residents. By the end of the workshop 5 tentative locations were identified, community-based themes were developed, and a list of design requirements for the VPA students were also identified.
On November 7th, the same group of individuals came back together, this time at La Casita, to see the first prototype of the SYR-LFL and to choose a location. The prototype was made out of an old phone kiosk that we used to find all over the city. Now with cell phones, most of these kiosks are being removed by the phone companies. Some however have remained in the near Westside, and will make great homes for the little free libraries. The phone kiosks can be retrofitted to hold two dozen books, they will be weatherproof, have a Plexiglas door, and a light inside so that books are visible any time of the day. Based on existing locations with phone kiosks, the group decided to install the first prototype on Gifford Street, next to DiMaria’s Convenience Store, in front of a heavily used bus stop.
It is expected that in late January the first SYR-LFL will be installed. Please be on the lookout for this exciting new project. If you have any questions about it, or suggestions for reading materials that will be in the library, please contact Maarten Jacobs at mjacob01@syr.edu or via phone at 315-443-0320.