Vallejo and Benicia’s Little Free Libraries keep neighborhoods reading

VALLEJO – You may have seen little wooden houses filled with books posted in front of private properties in your walks around Vallejo and Benicia. They are Little Free Libraries, set up by residents who want to encourage literacy and community. 

Some have whimsical decorations on the roof, like minuscule hobbit houses, pinecones or a succulent collection. Others mimic the look and the colors of the main house. Others yet are plainly painted in one color. But they all have one thing in common: they are full of books that neighbors and passersby can take home freely.

The motto of the nonprofit organization Little Free Library is, “Take a book. Share a book.” It started fortuitously when Todd Bol from Hudson, Wisconsin, built a tiny library in 2009 in the shape of a one-room schoolhouse as a tribute to his late mother, who was a teacher and loved to read. Bol planted it in front of his house and filled it with books for people to enjoy. His neighbors loved it, and he built a few more to give away. 

In 2010, community activist and educator Rick Brooks saw Bol’s little library and approached him with the idea of expanding it nationwide. The name Little Free Library was born, and Bol’s wooden units started to get charter numbers and media attention. In 2012, Bol established the Little Free Library nonprofit. 

Today there are more than 200,000 little libraries registered with the nonprofit, distributed across 128 countries.

Vallejo resident Pamela Herron got her library early on, which explains her low charter number: 2,365. In 2012, Herron, who lived at the time in El Paso, Texas, heard about the nonprofit from her co-worker Lisa Lopez Williamson, who was the librarian at the school where Herron taught. Lopez asked her if she would be interested in having a library in front of her house, and Herron said she was. 

“We were the first outdoor LFL in El Paso and a fairly early one of any kind,” Herron said. That first little library was built by a local woodworking class, but Herron’s husband and co-steward Albert Wong patched it a few times because the scorching summer heat and abundant winter rains of El Paso damaged it.

When they moved to Vallejo in 2017, they took their little library with them and planted it in front of their house at 1615 Sacramento St. Herron checks her library almost daily and works diligently to keep it well stocked with an eclectic collection of books. 

One of her neighbors is a professional organizer and often supplies Herron with books her clients are getting rid of. Herron also gets books from the Buy Nothing & Free Share Facebook group and from the Friends of the Library store located at the John F. Kennedy library, where she volunteers, when they have leftover books they cannot sell.

“In both places [El Paso and Vallejo] we lived in very diverse neighborhoods,” Herron said. “That's one reason I always try to have bilingual books, especially in Spanish, whenever possible.”

Frequent users of Herron’s library are the unhoused who camp by the railroad tracks close by. “We know that they're not going to be returning books or exchanging books and that's okay,” Herron said. “I just think it's fabulous that they're reading, and that that's a service that we can provide.” Some are fans of specific genres, like political thrillers or mysteries, and Herron keeps an eye out for those books so they can enjoy them.

Not everyone registers their little library with the nonprofit organization. Clair Whitmer received her tiny library as a birthday present from her son, who built it himself. Neither of them was aware of the nonprofit and the perks it can provide. Perhaps the most important is that once you register your library and get a charter number, your little library appears in an app so people can locate it easily.

The app shows more than 20 libraries in Vallejo and a dozen in Benicia, but there are many more that are not registered and that you will only find if you are a neighbor or happen to walk in front of it. (If you want to locate the registered libraries and don’t want to download the app, you can find them on this map).

Some owners only provide their address on the app. Others upload a photo of their library and a description. 

If you’re thinking about getting a library for your house, you can either build one or buy the wooden structure from the nonprofit organization and personalize it later. Lynn Donahue, from 2930 Heyman Ave. in Vallejo, bought the plain wooden house at the beginning of the pandemic from the website and then painted it and decorated it. 

“I used to live in Pinole and I saw them frequently there. When I moved here to Vallejo I wanted to set one up for the neighborhood,” Donahue said. “The whole point is, you take a book and you leave a book. So even if you don't have a library close by, you can still easily have access to books from your neighbors.”

Donahue stocked her library with her own books and even bought a couple of children’s books on Amazon. Then she posted the location on Nextdoor and let her neighbors know via a neighborhood chat. Now her library has acquired a life of its own and she doesn’t need to buy books to stock it. 

“I've seen people drive by and pull up on our street just to drop off a book, and sometimes a case of books,” Donahue said. “Or a grandmother will be walking with her granddaughter, and they'll grab a book or leave a book, and that might just be their whole excursion for the day. It's a very sweet, quaint thing.”

Donahue said little libraries are popping up everywhere. “Before, when I took a walk around the neighborhood, I used to see only one other one,” she explained. “But lately, when I walk out in the neighborhood with my dog, I see four or five just within this area.”

Owners of Little Free Libraries are happy with their choice to set one up, judging by the descriptions in the app. For Herron, the advantage is clear: “Literacy! I'm always happy to know anyone is reading, children, teens, and adults,” she said. “Reading is the foundation of education and brings people together.” 

And according to Donahue, “every neighborhood should have one. There’s no downside to it, really.”