Take a Book • Return a Book Little Free Library
Take Books. Share Books. Give Books.
Frontier Texas will install a Little Free Library as a new feature of the visitor center on Tuesday, August 5th at 11:00am. The Abilene Chamber of Commerce Red Coats will assist in marking the occasion along with the museum’s staff and volunteers. This will be the first official Little Free Library located in Abilene.
A Little Free Library is a weather proof book box placed in a public area (often in residential front yards) for people to share books. The concept and the signage on the box is simple, “Take a Book. Return a Book.”
An organization was created in Wisconsin 2009 to encourage the placement of these book boxes around the country. The organization’s mission: To promote literacy and the love of reading by building free book exchanges worldwide. To build a sense of community as we share skills, creativity and wisdom across generations. The original goal: To build 2,510 Little Free Libraries—as many libraries as Andrew Carnegie—and keep going. This goal was reached in August 2012. The official charter number for Frontier Texas’ box will be 16,256.
Jeff Salmon, the museum’s Executive Director said “We learned about the Little Free Library movement from our family living in Wisconsin and thought that it would be a great addition to how Frontier Texas serves visitors. We saw that there were none in this area. Abilene is a community that strongly supports literacy efforts and public access to literature and this just seems to fit well. Tourists often have extra books in the car they’ve finished and should enjoy having an opportunity to exchange them for new some free reading to take as they continue their journey.”
The box will be located in the covered outdoor pavilion at Frontier Texas. Volunteers of the museum have been collecting books to donate to help get the library started. Salmon said “I hope that others will be inspired to create Little Free Libraries at other locations in Abilene and at visitor centers throughout Texas.”
For more information about a Little Free Libraries visit http://littlefreelibrary.org.
Frontier Texas is a 501c3 nonprofit museum and visitor center located in historic downtown Abilene.
