By Julia Bachman, Staff Writer
Have you seen the little houses filled with books near the beach accesses in Southern Shores? Those are the new “Little Libraries” that contain books for every reader.
“Take a book, leave a book” was introduced to local accesses by Lori Keating, a former librarian in Loudoun County, Virginia. She moved here almost two years ago, but before she retired she thought of the idea. She had seen Little Libraries in Northern Virginia and thought having them at beach accesses here would benefit countless people.
“It made so much sense to me because everybody reads at the beach,” Keating said.
Keating just wasn’t sure how to make it happen. After she and her husband moved to the Outer Banks, she started thinking about how to go about the process. The properties that people cross over to get to the ocean in Southern Shores belong to the Southern Shores Civic Association. She called the SSCA to find out when their board meetings were and then attended one to present the idea to them.
“The community and the board members loved it and they asked me to come back to a board meeting,” said Keating, who during the next board meeting was able to talk about the details: what the Little Libraries would do for the community and what the project would entail.
The concept is simple: Take a book, leave a book.
“People take books from the libraries, and you don’t have to return the same book but you should return one eventually,” Keating said. “You can keep the book that you take and donate books to it as well.”
Keating said that the books starting this project came from the community. People heard about this through word of mouth and through the board meetings, and many have been bringing books from their private libraries to the SSCA office.
“It really does work well in a community, and I think that people really like it,” said Keating, who is the steward for the Little Library at the Dogwood beach access. “I make sure that the cases are filled with books for everybody.”
This means making sure there are children’s books, young adult novels and adult literature. As steward, she is also in charge of making sure it is in good maintenance.
So who built the Little Libraries? It turns out that Keating and her husband did. One side of the case is really tall for children’s books, and the double-decker shelves are for novels, so almost every size book will fit in there.
After building them in January and February, Keating and her husband donated them. SSCA paid for the charter, which is to the national organization called LittleFreeLibraries.org. There is a small charter plaque on the bottom of each little library, which puts them on a world map. People can go to the website to see if there is a Little Library in their area.
Each library is decorated by a different artist who puts their own flare on it.
“We wanted to involve the community more, so we got the owner of Made In the OBX to help us connect with some artists,” said Keating, adding that artists Dawn Morega, Kim Folds, Barb Noel and Carolina Coto decorated the Little Libraries.
What about the storms that hit the Outer Banks?
“We put a bunch of coats of polyurethane on them and figure every year we will have to apply the coats to keep them weatherproof,” Keating said. Also, silicone gel is placed around the creases to protect against water leaks that would damage the books.
The new Little Library collection is hard to miss at the beach access points in Southern Shores. The next time you’re in the mood for a little reading, stop by a Little Library and disappear into the pages of a good book.
“It’s really fun to see people get excited about this,” Keating said.
Sophomore Julia Bachman can be reached at bachmanju@daretolearn.org.
