Small Towns, Wisconsin Southwest Region Winter 2014 | Page 25

How can a small town like Brooklyn, WI have three libraries? Andrew
Carnegie asked that question more than 100 years ago, and with
all his money was unable to answer it. The truth is, more than 11,000
towns across the United States do not have public libraries of their
own. But now (trumpets, please…) everybody, everywhere, no matter
how far from the big city, can have access to almost any book they
want. Not just ebooks, mind you…but real books on paper, that you
can hold in your hands and read to your children.
Little Free Library, the worldwide phenomenon that is already in 59
countries, actually didn’t start with worldwide domination in mind.
Instead, it began in the small town of Hudson (Wisconsin!) as a
memorial to one of its beloved teachers. Now communities as small
as, oh, several houses between the corn fields are hosting some of
the most artistic, interesting, funniest, most stimulating and informative
books you can imagine.
Anybody can build a Little Free Library and become a steward. That’s
the secret—someone to watch out for each Little Library so that
everyone can contribute their favorite books and read what they like.
“Take a book; return a book” is the Little Free Library motto.
And if you’ve seen one of their bump