CRESTVIEW — A new library opened in town this month. Unlike the Crestview Public Library, however, this one’s a bit smaller: 16 by 19 by 23 inches, to be precise.
Jason Driver, an educator with the Okaloosa County School District, and his son Brendan, 9, erected Crestview's first Little Free Library.
Neighbors can stop by the library box — built from repurposed wood — in front of the family’s Hyde Park Drive home.
“If you see something you would like to read, take it,” Brendan and Jason stated in a flier distributed around the neighborhood. “Return your book to any Little Library or pass it on to a friend. If you can’t bear to part with it, keep it and bring back a different book to share.”
“I see it as a sort of contribution to the community, so the more of the community that uses it, well, all the better,” Jason Driver said.
FATHER-SON PROJECT
Anyone who wants to start their own Little Free Library doesn’t necessarily have to buy a kit, Driver said. Theirs cost $270, according to the Little Free Library website.
“You pay a lot for not being able to do woodwork,” Jason said with a self-deprecating laugh.
For Brendan, building and maintaining the Little Free Library is a fun father-son project.
“It makes me feel happy,” Brendan said. “I like to do stuff with my dad.”
Brendan said he liked tackling the project because it can encourage other kids to read.
“I think it is a good idea for kids who don’t know what they want to read,” Brendan said. “They don’t have to pay to buy it because it’s free.”
ENCOURAGING READERS
Librarians at the Crestview Public Library said they love the Little Free Library concept as another opportunity to get young readers hooked on books.
“I think it’s a great idea,” Library Director Jean Lewis said. “Whenever you can encourage reading, encourage it. I’m glad we have one in Crestview.”
The movement, which started in 2011, has also been on their radar as a potential neighborhood outreach, Lewis said.
“We looked at it and wondered where we could (do) something like that,” she said.
Driver said county elementary school principals contacted him about erecting Little Free Libraries at their schools. Constructing them could possibly be a project of CHOICE carpentry classes or parent groups, he said.
Their neighbors have been overwhelmingly receptive to the library, Jason said.
“I think it encourages reading,” neighbor Tonya Phillip said. “The kids should get more interested in reading. I told my daughter, ‘You need to read more.’ It strengthens their minds more than a TV show. It should be part of all kids’ activities.”
Phillip said she planned to take her 11-year-old daughter by the Drivers' Little Free Library to peruse its selection of children’s books.
“It’s better for kids than electronics,” Phillip said.
LITTLE FREE LIBRARIES
Two Hudson, Wis. readers developed the Little Free Library concept in 2011. Since then, nearly 15,000 of the small, book-stuffed boxes have sprouted around the world.
Neighbors are welcome to borrow, keep, swap and contribute books from the box. Users are encouraged to put their names and a note sharing their impressions of the book in the front of returned books for other readers’ benefit.
Currently, the next-closest Little Free Libraries to Crestview are in Gulf Breeze, Navarre, Panama City and Pensacola.
Learn more at www.littlefreelibrary.org.
See www.crestviewbulletin.com for video of Brendan Driver discussing his family’s Little Free Library
WANT TO GO?
Jason and Brendan Driver invite neighbors to frequent their Little Free Library, 530 Hyde Park Drive.
Email News Bulletin Staff Writer Brian Hughes, follow him on Twitter or call 850-682-6524.
This article originally appeared on Crestview News Bulletin: Father, son open Crestview’s first Little Free Library