Little Free Library

Little Free Library is finally receiving greater recognition for its tremendous impact in improving book access in under-resourced communities, spreading the joy of reading, amplifying diverse voices and helping to address the literacy needs of communities throughout the United States and around the world. Little Free Libraries are in more than 90 countries and there are now more than 100,000 Little Libraries around the world. But we can do so much more. With the Elevate Prize funding, we can increase the number of grants we award for Impact Libraries in high needs communities, provide better service and resources for Little Free Library stewards, expand our capacity for providing books, and increase our capacity for amplifying diverse voices as well as help our stewards in more remote or high needs areas. We can also expand our partnerships and engage more communities in our work.Access to books is critical in both children's literacy and adult literacy and we can play a vital role.

I'm a believer in the power of books. As a child, I spent countless hours in the public library reading books. I read fairy tales, folk tales, poetry and history. Books were where I discovered the beautiful photos of Gordon Parks, fell in love with the words of John Steinbeck or imagined myself as a young Nancy Drew. It was my gateway to worlds real and imagined. Reading was a path to understanding, empathy and learning. But for so many children, teens, and adults, this magic is lost to them. My career, first at the National Education Association running Read Across America and now at Little Free Library, has been dedicated to opening more doors through books, particularly diverse books where children can see themselves in the pages and hear stories both familiar and unfamiliar and in doing so widen their views and worlds. My vision? To continue to amplify those voices and my purpose to use my experience and knowledge to show leaders and partners an even better path forward with Little Free Library. Book access matters. I can help those who come after me, who have the same yearning and passion to make that difference.

In the United States, 45 million adults are functionally illiterate and cannot read above the fourth grade level and 2 out of 3 children living in poverty have no books to call their own even as studies say access to books is a critical factor in reading acquisition. Globally, at least 773 million youth and adults still cannot read or write and 250 million children are falling behind in literacy skills according to UNESCO. Again, access to books, reading resources, and literacy support can play a key role in changing those numbers. At Little Free Library, the simple mission and concept of our late founder Todd Bol to place a book sharing box in a front yard to create community has become a global phenomenon and expanded mission to build a better world through books Little Free Libraries are now found in schools, parks, shelters, community centers and public libraries are using them to extend their reach and services, placing multiple LFLs in communities they serve. Our stewards are the heart of this, sharing diverse books, creating reading activities. And Little Free Library provides grants, resources, partnerships, books, and programming. There are more than 100,000 to date and rising.

As we move through these challenging times, Little Free Library has adapted and so have our stewards. Following the death of George Floyd and the call to help communities of color, we created the Read In Color program to amplify the voices and work of diverse authors (who are not often shared enough in schools, bookstores, etc), increase access to books, particularly diverse books in underserved and marginalized communities by donating Little Free Libraries and books, and support minority-owned bookstores. Our Impact Library program provides grants for those wishing to increase book access in their communities and our Native Impact Library program expands access in tribal communities. We are in the final stages of our LFL mobile app, designed to help stewards and the public locate Little Free Libraries on our global map, help stewards communicate with and support one another, identify LFLs in need of assistance and extra care. Little Free Libraries were seen as an avenue to help combat anti-Asian racism and support Asian Pacific Islander authors following the Atlanta murders and ongoing anti-Asian violence as activists placed the books in neighborhood libraries. I also moderate the Little Free Library Unbound series live and on youtube.

If the pandemic and era of social justice, anti-Asian violence, and social and political upheaval has shown us anything, it has shown us the power of community. Together with our stewards, we have shown that sometimes the simplest acts have the greatest impact. We know that so many of our stewards opened up their libraries to help children and families not only gain access to books, but food, PPE, arts and crafts, and resources. We pivoted with guidance on how to keep the sharing safe and effective if they wanted to do so. We now help a number of schools and public libraries and community organizations expand their reach and see that continuing. Cities and civic organizations are now turning to us to help increase book access. Tribal communities are now working with us to do the same. We are increasing the number of grants, establishing partnerships with organizations and publishers to create ongoing sources of books and assistance, and we are providing additional assistance to our stewards because we see how the communities are responding and the number of children and adults we are reaching increasing.