Photo via Sigma Tau Delta
To encourage community and increase a love for reading, the Gainesville chapter of Sigma Tau Delta runs three Little Free Libraries around campus.
In 2016, Sigma Tau Delta wanted to leave a lasting impact on the Gainesville campus, so the chapter’s used a project grant to establish the first Free Little Library. Dr. Leigh Dillard, assistant professor of English and chapter advisor, had an alumni donate a newspaper box, and she personally cleaned it up.
Over the years, two more libraries have been added to the Gainesville campus. You can find them in front of the Nesbitt Building, the Arts and Technology Building and the Student Center.
Theodore Lopta, co-secretary on the Sigma Tau Delta executive board, said, “The Little Free Libraries are those blue boxes you see around the Gainesville campus—and they’re full of books free for the taking!” He worked as the Little Free Library coordinator for the past year and moved to overseeing the three libraries on campus.
Little Free Library is a nonprofit organization based in Minnesota. It exists to inspire readers and encourage neighborhood community. Within the last few years, Little Free Library has built a partnership with Sigma Tau Delta.
Dillard says, “The Little Free Libraries are important because it is something local that we [Sigma Tau Delta] do—more community facing than just something in the English Major Lounge.”
Lopata says, “Every week, we restock them with new donated material. Our motto is technically “take a book, leave a book,” but that’s more of an IOU than a necessity. You don’t need to have a book on-hand to trade. Just so long as you pay it forward someday, enjoy the Little Free Libraries! We get a lot of happiness seeing people enjoy the books, so I encourage people to make use of them!”
Being on a commuter campus, Dillard explains that Little Free Libraries not only encourage reading, but they are innately building community. She said, “Being able to share books that we enjoy with people in our community for free is an important mark of community, you can still benefit from it even when you don’t see each other.”
The library’s coordinators are constantly decorating and changing the signs for the Little Free Libraries to remain relevant on campus. They will change the signs to reflect Finals Week, or use caution tape for Banned Books Week.
Lopata says usage varies a lot. “Some weeks when we restock them, they’ll be totally empty. Other times, it’ll be the exact same books from our previous run! I’m always delighted when they’re cleared out, though. I love seeing people make use of them and hope to see folks do it more.”
Sigma Tau Delta has a pile of books they keep in the English Major Lounge, so that the libraries are always full. Dillard said, “It doesn’t make sense for text books to go into the libraries, but we know that people who are coming to class, are reading other books too. We are happy for people to donate any book that they are reading. We tend to collect the books that are of most interest for our Little Free Libraries: fiction, YA, novels from upper divisional classes that students drop in there. But it’s a nice way to encourage recreational reading.”
Furthermore, “Reading can take a lot of different forms, and the reading you are often doing in class has a different kind of goal in mind. The libraries are often a reminder that reading can be joyful. Seeing a Little Free Library inherently makes me happy. There is something whimsical about it.”
She said, “It’s about choice. It’s about reading what you want.”
Sigma Tau Delta also donates a partner organization called Books for Keeps in Athens. At the end of each semester, Sigma Tau Delta will have bins around the campus to collect books.
Dillard says, “We take any book anytime. We are happy for people to donate any book that they’re reading.”