Literacy Clinic to install seventh Little Free Library

NIU’s Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic will install its seventh Little Free Library at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 10, at the Mason Court Apartments, 275 N. Cross St. in Sycamore.

Little Free Libraries are an international movement where people place small, weather-proof boxes in their communities. These boxes are stocked with books which are free to the public to take and return. The hope is that when someone takes a book, they will return it or replace it with another book.

The Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic has set-up and maintains six throughout DeKalb and Sycamore.

As part of its stewardship of these Little Free Libraries, clinic staff visit each box weekly to make sure it is stocked with books for all ages. The DeKalb Daily Chronicle has donated an old red newspaper box for each of its six – soon to be seven – Little Free Libraries. Each newspaper box has been converted into a small library with shelves.

The clinic’s acting director, Suzi Hinrichs, along with former director, NIU College of Education Dean Laurie Elish-Piper, have been the driving forces behind this project.

As the Little Free Libraries have been in the community, they have been successful – sometimes going from full to empty within a week. Additionally, many of the libraries have seen community members give back in the form of donated books. While the Jerry L. Johns Literacy Clinic is dedicated to keeping these libraries stocked, it is excited to have community members using and contributing to these libraries.

For more information, call (815) 753-1416 or email literacyclinic@niu.edu.