If you’re not walking, you could easily pass them by. They resemble bird mansions — typically not much more than two feet deep and 30 inches wide.
Anne Rigby’s, which sits outside her apartment building in the 300 block of South Oak Park Avenue, is stocked mostly with children’s books and self-help titles like Retiring in Arizona, a small paperback that instructs readers on “Living Loving and Lounging Under the Sun.”
If you’re interested, you can drop by and take it home with you. Don’t bother paying for it or even leaving a book behind in exchange — that is, unless you want to.
Rigby built her mini library in May, joining dozens of Oak Parkers who have been charmed by a quaint, heart-warmingly simple concept that has become a not-so-minor global phenomenon since a Wisconsin man named Todd H. Bol built the first one in 2009.
Bol registered a nonprofit corporation, fittingly called Little Free Library, in 2012 to deal with the growing demand for the small lending boxes that thrive on such old-fashioned concepts as the honor code and the barter system.
According to its website, the organization went the nonprofit route so as to preempt a dependence on profit, but as it grows it has been confronted with a problem most businesses would love to have.
The Little Free Library has morphed into something of a global movement and the organization underpinning it is growing exponentially.
Little Free Library has an operating budget of $1.5 million, 95 percent of it from earned income from the sale of the physical libraries, which people can purchase, and from registration fees.
It costs a one-time payment of $40 to purchase a charter sign and to acquire an official registration number. If library owners don’t want to build their own, the Little Free Library nonprofit has weatherproof library models for purchase on its website ranging from around $150 to around $1,500.
And then there’s the $1 million Little Free Library originally designed by Matt Groening and his team — the people behind the “Simpsons” television show. It features hand-drawn characters from the show and “reading-friendly quotes.” Bol “will personally deliver the library and take the lucky library owner out to dinner,” the website notes. There’s only one left in stock.
According to the organization, there are currently more than 25,000 Little Free Libraries registered in all 50 states and over 70 countries. The nonprofit aims to increase the number of libraries to 50,000 worldwide by 2017 and has started a crowdfunding campaign to help hit that target.
“We grow at a rate of about 1,400 libraries a month,” Bol said in a recent phone interview, adding that on any given day, there are at least 150,000 books being exchanged by way of the lending boxes.
If any place in Illinois can be considered ground zero for the growth of Little Free Libraries, it’s Oak Park, which has more of the tiny libraries than any other municipality in the state, barring Chicago.
According to Little Free Library’s global map, which can be accessed on its website, Oak Park has 17 registered libraries — that’s more than Evanston and Naperville, two of the densest little library areas in the state, combined.
When asked if the count provided by that map is accurate, Bol said it’s in the ballpark — albeit it’s likely to have increased by now given the libraries’ rate of growth.
“If there are 17, I’m willing to bet you there are twice as many,” he said, noting that the number doesn’t factor in the lag between when a person decides to build, or purchase, a library and when that owner’s registration is logged in the nonprofit’s database. Moreover, not all of the libraries are registered.
At their current rate of growth, there will be more Little Free Libraries than there are McDonald’s restaurants, Bol said.
Wednesday Journal first reported on the appearance of the little libraries in Oak Park back in 2012, the year Little Free Library registered as a nonprofit. Based on interviews with current Little Free Library owners in the village, the number of Oak Parkers who have built the book lending hubs has taken off in the last two years.
Rigby, whose library went up in May, was inspired while biking around Oak Park last summer.
“It’s a real surprise to walk through a neighborhood and see this great little library,” she said. “I stock and check mine pretty regularly. I’ve been trying to purge books, because I have so many. But it’s funny, because the library is always being refilled and changed by anonymous strangers.”
Robert Karrow, a retired librarian who lives on the 600 block of Lyman Avenue, built his library last summer after a former colleague asked him to build her one.
“I was happy to make my woodshop available,” he said, adding that eventually he decided it was time to build his own.
“I really haven’t stocked it at all since about June. I noticed lately that it had gotten pretty empty. Then, a couple of days later, I saw someone had added some books, including some kids’ titles.”
So what makes the free libraries such a hit in Oak Park?
“I think there are so many libraries because it seems to bring a sense of community to the area and because we have so many pedestrians. It’s a chance for people to stop and take a minute to look at a book or two before they move on,” said Teresa Melcher, who along with her neighbor, Nadine Thompson, owns a library in the 200 block of South Harvey Avenue.
“It’s funny, once I got a library, whenever I travel, I’m always noticing the libraries that I see,” Melcher said. “Plus my kids who live in different cities will send me pictures of libraries that they find.”
“Oak Park is a literate community and a giving one,” said Thompson, who is also a retired librarian. “We support three libraries in a town that is two miles by three miles. The public library just added a book bike for parades and block parties and visiting parks and events. We love libraries in all forms!”
“The libraries are a really cool way to interact with the neighborhood and turn fellow readers on to favorite books and authors and genres,” said Mike Hanline, who along with his wife owns a library in the 100 block of North Kenilworth Avenue.
Even the Oak Park Public Library has gotten in on the act. David Seleb, the library’s executive director, said this summer the library donated a Little Free Library to the All Abilities, All Ages collaborative garden at Cheney Mansion.
“Little Free Libraries are about sharing books and about community engagement, two things that are an indispensable part of the mission of the Oak Park Public Library,” said Seleb.
Bol said he’s been waiting for the Chicago area to “catch fire.” When he learned of his concept’s proliferation in Oak Park, he seemed genuinely pleased.
“I suspect you’ll be north of a thousand libraries in Chicago within a year [or two]. Oak Park is a great place for that seed to be planted. I’d love to go to Chicago and do a trolley tour of Little Free Libraries in your area,” he said, adding that he’s open to anyone with ideas for collaboration.
Bol said he believes his libraries have spread so quickly because of the underlying values they promote.
“They touch our community soul. It’s something about digital things and air conditioning that have kept us in the house. Little Free Libraries spark community engagement around literacy and books. They touch a great primal need of ours to connect and feel comfortable with each other. We’re often called a revolution in neighborhood conversation,” he said.
And that revolution won’t be televised.
A previous version of this article mistakenly noted that Matt Groening is an Oak Park native. Wednesday Journal regrets the error.