Little Free Library

[1:16]Zibby Owens: Hi. This is Zibby Owens, and you're listening to Totally Booked with Zibby. Formerly, moms don't have time to read books. In my daily show, I interview today's latest best selling, buzziest, or underrated authors and story creators whose work I think is worth your time. As a bookstore owner, publisher, author, and obviously podcaster, I get a comprehensive look at everything that's coming out and spend my time curating the best books so you don't have to. Stay in the know, get insider insights, and connect with guests like I do every single day. For more information, go to zibbymedia.com and follow me on Instagram zibby owens. This was a little bit of a different type of episode, but I've decided to spotlight some people in the literary world who are not specifically authors, and I thought that the CEO of Little Free Library would be really interesting to talk to. I mean, he was really interesting to talk to. His name is Daniel Gumnet. He's the executive director and chief executive officer at the Little Free Library non profit. His mission is to be a catalyst for building community, inspiring readers, and expanding book access for all. If you haven't seen one of the Little mini bookshelves out in the wild, there are over 200,000 of them. Maybe you've contributed a book. Maybe you've taken a book. They're in all 50 states in a 128 countries and seven continents. So how did this happen, and what's it like to run something like this? And how can we all help expand book access and make sure everyone's reading? That's what we talked about. Stay tuned. Welcome, Daniel. So excited to talk to you about Little Free Library and all the great work that you and your organization do does do. I don't know. All the great work you do. We all do. Thanks,

[3:08]Danielle: Zibby. It's a real pleasure to meet you. I'm super excited to be here today.

[3:11]Zibby Owens: Amazing. Danielle, Little Free Library, when did you join? Why did you join? And tell us about the amazing work you're doing.

[3:22]Danielle: Well, so Little Free Library is a remarkable organization. Many people know us from the book sharing boxes on corners all over the world. Right now, there's about 200,000 Little Free Libraries worldwide in 128 countries and on seven continents, including Antarctica. We share about 83,000,000 books a year. That's a huge number. So I'm very new to Little Free Library, and I'm going to milk the new guy thing for as long as I possibly can. I've been here for about seven or eight months. And what really drew me to Little Free Library was what I think is our ability to make an impact on literacy on a global scale. And of course I love books and storytelling is at the core of my life and my work, but I believe that early learning and literacy is fundamental. And much of my career has been dedicated to improving literacy for children experiencing homelessness in underserved neighborhoods. And what Little Free Libraries does is really put books in the hands of kids who need them the most. And I don't have to prove that access to books increases literacy. Universities all over the world have done that. And we know that Little Free Libraries are making more books accessible to kids all over the place.

[4:48]Zibby Owens: Amazing. I read that Little Free Library has now partnered with Barnes and Noble. Can you talk about that? Yeah. You mean on April 1 where the rumor is that they've purchased us? Oh my gosh. Was that a joke? It it I think it was an April fool's joke. Oh my gosh. I am a moron, but that's okay. I was like, that's so interesting.

[5:10]Danielle: Okay. But however, we do have a partnership with them in that there are library or sorry, puzzles and other things that are sold at Barnes and Noble with our copyright. So we have a copyright agreement with them on that. But, yes, one of my I did see that I was supposed to look it up. One of my friends stopped me at the Public Library Association conference this last week and said, oh, so I heard Barnes and Noble's bought you. And I said it must be April 1.

[5:39]Zibby Owens: Okay. Okay. Oh my goodness. Well, that's fine.

[5:45]Danielle: Little Free Library. How I apologize. I didn't

[5:49]Zibby Owens: mean to be Oh my gosh. No, don't be silly. Let's say a community wants to add a Little Free Library in their neighborhood or you want one like on the corner of your, you know, on your street or whatever. How does someone go about doing that?

[6:02]Danielle: Well, are several ways. Some people just build their own Little Free Libraries and put them up. Some people purchase Little Free Library kits from us, which they come and they can assemble them with their families in neighborhood and put them up. Little Free Library also sells fully fabricated Little Free Libraries. We encourage people if they want a very durable library group that looks beautiful, it's gonna last for a long time to purchase it from us for two reasons. One, the ones we built are designed carefully so they don't leak, they don't fall apart and the like. But more importantly, the proceeds from that sale help support our programs to get books in the hands of kids who need them. So this year, we're celebrating our tenth year anniversary of our Impact Library program, where we've put more than 3,500 libraries in book deserts and stock them full of books. We have programs where we're putting libraries on indigenous tribal land throughout The United States and in Canada. And then we have a reading color program, which people now let people know about where we build these cohorts of book communities. So let's say in Philadelphia, a group will put 10 organizations will put Little Free Libraries throughout Philadelphia and stock them full of books that are culturally specific to that that neighborhood. So that's why I'm I'm encouraging people to buy Little Free Libraries from us because it helps support that work. We do a lot of partnerships to be with libraries. And many of us many of them have described our work as sort of like we're the twig on their branches. So in San Diego, for example, there are three, four hundred little free libraries, and the library system has put in a 100 of them with us because they really see that we provide twenty four hour access to books. People who who might be afraid to be going outside for whatever reason these days or going to public buildings, can go there whenever they want to and take out books. They might be more strategically located near people where they are so they don't need to cross busy streets. So there's there's all sorts of reasons that libraries love to put in little Little Free Libraries with us.

[8:22]Zibby Owens: So it's the early literacy obviously is so critically important, but I have to say at some Little Free Libraries, I've seen

[8:30]Danielle: adult books too. There are lots of books for grown ups. Tell me about that and the the mix of it all. Absolutely. And and and clearly, Zvi, I'm speaking for my passion. This is something that really matters to me. So I can talk about early literacy all day, all the time. But really a big component of Little Free Library is this sense of community and love of reading and the joy of reading and the sense of community that's built around sharing books. And I think, you know, if you put a Little Free Library in front of your house, it's for you to curate however you want to. You're the community. You decide what's important to you. And frequently, we'll see Little Free Libraries that have all different kinds of books, but some that really like romance novels or mysteries or nonfiction. There are some neighborhoods, Zibby, that you've probably seen where there are multiple Little Free Libraries within a few block neighborhood area. What I've seen is that sometimes they kind of specialize in things. So one on one corner might have more kids books, one might have more books aimed at older readers. But the thing for me that is so exciting about Little Free Libraries in the neighborhoods is that folks really feel that they make their neighborhood feel friendlier. That they've talked to people that they've never talked to before. They see their neighbors come up every day with their little kids on sleds, here in Minnesota frequently on sleds, on bicycles, what have you. And it really builds this sense of community and sharing. That I think is a wonderful thing. That is a wonderful thing. It's amazing.

[10:12]Zibby Owens: So what is most important to your organization right now? Like what do you most want people to know? What do you most need help with? If anything? Yeah,

[10:22]Danielle: there's actually something that is really a challenge for me, Zibby, and I can use all the help I can get on this one. So I'm the new guy, been here seven months. I'm out in the world talking to people all the time. And I'll meet somebody say, Hi, I'm Daniel Gumnet. I'm the new CEO of Little Free Library. And they go, Oh, I love Little Free Libraries. There's one in my neighborhood and the kids and whatever. And then they cock their head to the side and then they squint at me and they go, hold it. You said CEO? And I said, yeah. They go, you mean Little Free Libraries is a thing? And so so many people love the Little Free Library boxes, but they don't know that we're this organization that is putting books in the hands of kids who need them, that are running programs that help get books by African American authors in neighborhoods with high populations of people, African American folks. I'm really trying to figure this one out. Now it's wonderful that we have a global brand that everybody loves, but very few are identifying us as an organization doing good in the world. You know, like we have this app that has more than 400,000 users that tells everybody where to find little free libraries. I don't know, Zibby, if you've got any ideas or if any of your your listeners have any ideas because I'm all ears because this is a this is a real challenge for me. Today's episode is sponsored by Quince.

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[14:23]Danielle: And why do you need what would it bring you? Why do you want people to know it's a big organization? What will you get out of that the most? Like, what's the goal of that? Well, it's because then they would participate more robustly and take advantage of all the things that we have to offer that they don't take advantage of right now because they don't know. Like, they might not be registering the libraries and using the app and listing where their library is, and then they can flag on the app, hey. I need kids' books. Or they wouldn't know that we have pipelines to help, you know, because of our relationships with publishers and the like. We have pipelines of books to folks. If people want to help stock their books, we can help them do that. We have all these opportunities for people to say, oh, I want to volunteer and do these things so we can help build community and connect folks and the like. And then obviously, we're a not for profit organization. We're doing all of this work, Financial support, being known better as an organization worthy of financial support would benefit our mission.

[15:28]Zibby Owens: Have you asked to put QR codes or information in all the boxes about the organization?

[15:33]Danielle: We are beginning to do more of those things. Yes. Yes.

[15:38]Zibby Owens: I think that's you know, when people use it, having them have something right there is probably the most helpful. Because if you already have so much awareness of the boxes and so many users Yeah. That might be.

[15:52]Danielle: I think that that would be that is something the trick would be getting all the existing getting existing stewards to do it, but that could be something that would be easier for us to do as we're installing new boxes. And yes, I think that is something we're gonna try.

[16:06]Zibby Owens: I think making it a really cool thing to be part of the community, if you call them stewards or whatever you call them, little free librarians and making that a community of itself with its own WhatsApp group or whatever.

[16:19]Danielle: And then they can spread the message more as well. That's true. One of the other things that I think is amazing is that it gives them also an opportunity to feel like they're part of something bigger than themselves. Yeah. And I think all of us are looking for that. And, you know, some of the ways that happens organically is when the government shut down and SNAP benefits stopped, people started putting food and other things in Little Free Libraries because they knew their neighbors needed it. During the pandemic, the same thing, masks, what have you. Recently here in Minnesota, we've had a lot of ICE stuff going on. People started putting whistles and, you know, food and things like that in in Little Free Libraries. There's a natural sense of community that way in terms of neighbors helping neighbors. But also, you know, we have amazing partnerships with all of these publishing groups like Scholastic, you know, the dog band Captain Underpants. You know, wouldn't you want to be part of the whole, you know, getting the brand new Dave Pilkey books, you know, with the, you know, it's like there's so much that could happen by building this sense of community even more than it exists today. Okay. So let's do

[17:42]Zibby Owens: an example. I want to start my own little free library. I go on your site, I order the fully formatted, I want the easiest thing possible. It's going to come, I'm going to install it. Do I have to get permission or can I just put it? It must vary by town, right? Are we allowed to just put them anywhere we want? Well, if it's your property,

[18:03]Danielle: it's your property. There may be some ordinances in some places about putting it too close to the street, you know, but that's not a big deal. But I've very rarely heard people having problems putting it on their own property. Sometimes condo, you know, homeowners associations may have some rules around that. I wouldn't recommend just going and putting a little free library in your park without talking to the city. Right. People do, but I don't I would I would encourage you to talk to your city first. Many cities are totally open with it. Mostly I've heard that they want to make sure it's not placed too close to something so that the mowing is easy to do, you know, so they can get the mower between that and something else. But it's really quite easy, especially if it's your property. I mean this, you know, it's it's it's your property. Okay.

[18:53]Zibby Owens: When you order the box, when you order the Little Free Library, does it come with books or do you put your own books?

[18:59]Danielle: The Little Free Library ones that we provide for our program recipients all come with books. People can also order book bundles when they order their library. So they might wanna order a kid's bundle or authors of color bundle, what have you. I find that most people who order Little Free Libraries already have more books in their house than they know what to do with. Mhmm. And part of the reason is that they're able to then use their Little Free Libraries to share their books. And, you know, their kids have grown up or whatever, and they want all the kids books to to go out into the world. You know? And the whole model is you put a book in, somebody takes it, sometimes they put them back. One of the things that we're really happy about is in certain neighborhoods, we're trying to increase the size of libraries in people's houses. And so we're happy when they just take the books and no books ever come back. Yeah. But most people find that they have enough books in their house to start it, or they can get books from the Friends of Libraries, or they go to Thrift, you know, book and purchase books are inexpensive. And then we also have connections for them to get books at very low costs.

[20:07]Zibby Owens: Sorry for this siren. No, no worries. You mentioned publisher relationships. For example, so with the new Dave Pilkey books or whatever, how then do Little Free Library stewards get books like that or partner with the publishers you have relationships with?

[20:25]Danielle: So we do book giveaways all the time. So on people on our Facebook group, we think we have more than 500,000 people following us on on Facebook. Those are very, very popular. Our email blasts, we have hundreds of thousands of people on our email list. So we'll put it out saying, hey. There's these new books coming in, and you can sign up to win. They're very, very popular. You know, in the case of, like, Hesh we got a a a thing going with Heshet. They had their two hundredth anniversary. They're putting in 200 Little Free Libraries stocked with books all over the country. Dave Pilkey's putting in a 100 Little Free Libraries all stocked with books. We have a thing going right now with Vrbo too, where they're putting these beach read books, they're stocking them all full of books. And then also these programs frequently have an opportunity for our other stewards to get access to the same kinds of books.

[21:19]Zibby Owens: Wonderful. Yeah, I think a couple of our books you've picked as giveaways.

[21:24]Danielle: I think so.

[21:25]Zibby Owens: Think so. Place and Alicia Fernandez Miranda's book, Someone's Yeah, Got and we're grateful for that partnership. Thank you. Oh, you're welcome. No, it's great. Well, I think it's so wonderful what you're doing. And I think the awareness that there is a whole organization behind it and therefore more resources and more to get out of it and ways for people to give back to the organization so you can keep doing your good work and spreading the love and giving books and communities that need it is so important and so helpful. And I'm really grateful for all that you do, for the stories that you share, and the way that you're bringing people together in a time where it can feel very isolating in the world. So thank you for all that you do. You're welcome, Zibby. I really, really appreciate the opportunity to speak with you about it. Thank you. My pleasure. Alright. Thank you, Danielle. Take Bye bye. Bye bye. Thank you for listening to Totally Booked with Zibby, formerly moms don't have time to read books. If you loved the show, tell a friend, leave a review, follow me on Instagram at Zibby Owens, and spread the word. Thanks so much. Oh, and buy the books.