Little Free Libraries go up all over area

jackson@sanduskyregister.comWant something to read? There's likely a Little Free Library with a couple of dozen used books located near you.And if there isn't, you might get one soon.A Little Free Library, at least usually, is a small, roofed wooden object about the size of a doghouse, mounted on a pole, with books inside. Readers are invited to take a book, and perhaps replace it with a book.The small libraries can be ordered from the Little Free Library website at littlefreelibrary.org, but some people make their own.Sandusky Library has helped lead the Little Free Library movement. It placed on in front of the Merry-Go-Round Museum in downtown Sandusky, then put up a second one at Facer Park.On Thursday, Sandusky Library installed a third Little Free Library in the emergency room at Firelands Regional Medical Center."It just occurred to me this is a place where people spend time they weren't expecting," said Julie Brooks, CEO of Sandusky Library. "Maybe it would be amusing or soothing to be able to pick a book. I thought it would be helpful to all ages."But the library isn't alone in putting up Little Free Libraries.Lezlie Whaley's Little Free Library went into operations just a few days ago at the home in the 500 block of Pennsylvania in Perkins Township that she shares with her husband, Tom. She said she read about LIttle Free Libraries about three or four months ago in a Rotary Club magazine.After she retired in June as an English teacher at Edison High School, she wanted one, too.She looked at the kits at the Little Free Library website, then called in experts to make one."My mom and my stepdad are former house builders and designers, so they made one," she said. "My stepdad just went down in front of the Merry-Go-Round Museum. He measured it out."Whaley has stocked her new library with about two dozen books and has more ready when they are needed.Now all she needs are library patrons. Readers coming down Columbus Avenue from the direction of Sandusky can turn right onto Michigan Avenue and then left on Pennsylvania, she said.Mr. Smith's Coffeehouse has put together a Little Free Library indoors.It's dedicated to the memory of June Elizabeth King, 63, a poet and former Sandusky Library employee who died on June 11, explains Trent Beard, the owner of the coffee shop. It's been stocked with probably a little more than 100 books, using existing bookshelves in the business."We're in the process of making a sign that sort of commemorates it as a memorial for June," he said. "People can use it right now."Rini Caudill Jeffers, a writer and journalist, has one at her house in Vermilion, "We are about a block away from the Erie County line so I like to say we're the westernmost LIttle Free Library in Lorain County," she wrote in a Facebook message. "We had a block party to launch it and 'Booker' lives in it, a little stuffed bookshelf monster I made. We've had it filled with roses, we get notes from patrons, we even received a donated copy of 'Where The Sidewalk Ends' (it IS at the end of the sidewalk) from a lost cat that we reunited with his owner."Sandusky Library isn't done with its Little Free Library installations. Brooks hopes to install one in Osborn Park, near Huron.She also wants to place one in Castalia in Veterans Park, across the street from the post office, and one near Mills Elementary School in Sandusky.Local Little Free Library locations near SanduskySanduskyMerry-Go-Round Museum, 301 Jackson St., Sandusky.Facer Park, on Water Street in downtown Sandusky.Firelands Regional Medical Center emergency room, 1111 Hayes.Perkins Township500 block of Pennsylvania Ave.Marblehead600 block of Park Lane.Port ClintonLakeview Park, 1100 East Perry St.Huron100 block of Center St.Vermilion4400 block of Mapleview Dr. Tom Whaley puts the finishing touches on a Little Free Library on Pennsylvania Avenue in Perkins Township.