Bibliotekėlė

Little Free Library Movement in Lithuania

 

 

One dark Lithuanian night three years ago I was browsing the internet when I found Little Free Library organisation website accidently, however, I instantly felt that this is what I really want to do in Vilnius. I like to joke that I had a vision where it should be standing and I followed my instinct to build it. (Almost like the Grand Duke of Lithuania, Gediminas, had a vision about building a new capital of Lithuania in Vilnius, huh? :) ) It took me a while to convince my sceptical father to help me building the Little Free Library. After two months of constant attempting, I finally succeeded and we both built a small box for books, which is standing now on Tramvaju Street in Vilnius. October 13, 2012 was the opening day. I was frightened that day, to be honest :). Even though I had invited all of my neighbours to come for the opening, nobody appeared. I recall, everyone was so sceptical about the possibilities for a library to survive even just for a few days, so for several days after the opening I had lots of nightmares, where somebody was damaging the little library.  But it survived! And to everyone's suprise, it was quite easy for people to get used to and start using the library for exchanging beloved books. We got lots of attention from media and I even got on the cover of one national newspaper! That was really huge after all of those nights full of bad dreams :). The library became a member of the street community, moreover, I would dare to say it built the community of readers in the Antakalnis neighborhood and Vilnius as well. There are now 5 registered boxes in Vilnius and more than 10 in whole Lithuania. I lost the number! :)

 

If you're about to build Little Free Library in your country, please do not hesitate to contact me at skaitykirdalinkis@gmail.com as I can give you some useful tips on how to grow Community of Readers in your town!

 

 Milda Varnauskaitė