A Second Life for Library Books

By Hannah Moulds, Community Engagement Librarian

Have you ever wondered what happens to a discarded library book?

KDL buys thousands of new books a year. With so many new titles, so many copies of the most popular books and only so much space available on the shelves, there comes a time when books need to be discarded. Some discarded books end up in Friends of the Library book sales, and some with extreme damage get recycled, but there is another special place that many discarded books end up: the Bookmobile. In the very back of the Bookmobile lives a special "Little Free Library" shelf that is filled to the brim with gently used picture books, chapter books, graphic novels and more. On this shelf, folks can take whatever books they would like without worry of returning them. 

For many of the kids that regularly visit the Bookmobile, the Little Free Library is an essential part of their library experience -- for many, it is their only library experience. Maybe they are a child from a family that moves around a lot, and their grownups don't want to deal with the hassle of bringing books back to the library. Maybe they are a child of immigrant parents who don't fully understand or trust the concept of the library yet. There are so many barriers that stop some families from accessing the library that most of us don't understand. These barriers prevent so many from accessing free information, resources, technology and the lifelong love of reading that every child deserves the chance to develop.

At a mobile home community, a barefoot child wanders into the Bookmobile to see if any superhero books are on the "free shelf" -- he is delighted to find a Spiderman graphic novel. At an apartment, a teenager runs up to the Bookmobile after getting off the school bus to see if we have any more free fantasy/romance books. She takes a stack of six books. "I read every single book I grabbed last time," she tells me excitedly. At a mobile food pantry site, a smiling girl walks into the rig. "Hi, how are you?" she asks me. I soon realize she doesn't speak much more English than this; she is a newly resettled refugee, and her native language is Dari. We work together using a translation device to find a wordless picture book for her on the free shelf, and she grabs a board book for her baby sister. When I see her again a few months later, her English has greatly progressed, and she confidently walks up to the Little Free Library shelf to grab more books for her and her siblings.

So, what happens to a discarded library book? Sometimes, it finds exactly the reader who was waiting for it. 

By the numbers:

• Currently, around 160 books per month get taken from the Bookmobile's Little Free Library.
• Community partners (local nonprofits, folks that stock their neighborhood Little Free Library, etc) have taken about 1,000 Little Free Library books from our shelves this year to distribute all over Kent County.
• Between the Bookmobile, community partners and Little Free Library books given to the airport, over 6,000 Little Free Library books have gone out to folks so far this year.