The Anna Maria Island Sun Newspaper

Vol. 15 No. 6 - December 3, 2014

FEATURE

Island gets first Little Free Library

Anna Maria Island Sun News Story

Doug Copeland | Submitted

Sun reporter Pat Copeland adds a book to her Little Free Library.

ANNA MARIA – Thanks to Pat and Doug Copeland, Anna Maria Island now has its first Little Free Library.

Operating under the international organization’s motto, “Take a book, return a book,” the Copelands’ Little Free Library (LFL) is also believed to be the first one registered to a private residence in Manatee County. The county operates several LFLs at county parks and preserves, including one near the entry to the Robinson Preserve.

What is a Little Free Library, you ask?

“In its most basic form, a Little Free Library is a box full of books where anyone may stop by and pick up a book (or two) and bring another book to share,” says the LFL website.

Pat’s LFL was a gift from her husband Doug, a master woodworker who designed and built the small book-filled structure that now sits in the couple’s front yard at 708 North Bay Boulevard.

“A couple years ago I saw a segment on the nightly news about Little Free Libraries. It intrigued me and I knew I wanted one,” Pat said. “And last fall, when I was in Maryland taking care of my granddaughter the people two houses down had one. I used it all the time, and it was great, so I told Doug that’s what I wanted for Christmas.”

This simple request proved not so simple after all.

“Doug built me one for Christmas, but the city said we couldn’t put it up because anything over a foot is considered a structure and is not allowed in the setback,” she explained.

“It has to be by the street, so people can access it, so Doug (an Anna Maria commissioner) started lobbying to add a section to the code to allow them in the setback. This was in January, and commissioners finally approved it in October.

“Some of the objections from other commissioners were that everyone would want one and that people would put advertising in them, which is strictly forbidden by the Little Free Library contract. When they did write the ordinance, they only allowed five in the entire city,” Pat said.

The LFL website provides sample design plans, but most folks opt for a design based on personal tastes and preferences.

“It’s really solid and has a cute little tin roof,” Pat said of Doug’s handiwork.

Once permitted and put in place, the Island’s newest library needed books and visitors to bring it to life.

“I put in several books by Tim Dorsey and Carl Hiaasen, which went really fast, like I knew they would,” she said.

“My neighbor, Alice Moerk, a retired music professor and author, brought a couple of her books down and put them in there. Doug and I bought books at the Island Branch Library book sale earlier this year, including some by Tom Clancy and James Patterson. He read all those, so we put them in there too,” she added.

“My library’s first visitor was my college roommate Debbe Goldberg, who was visiting us from Santa Fe, N.M. She brought some mysteries to read on her trip and put in the ones she had finished,” Pat said.

When asked what she hopes her Little Free Library brings to the northwest corner of the Island she and Doug have called home for decades, Pat said, “Everybody I tell about it just loves the concept. I want people to come by and use it, and I hope it promotes reading.”

Pat encourages her Island neighbors and those just visiting to learn more at www.littlefreelibrary.org.

 


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