ROCKINGHAM — The educator side of one Richmond County Schools media specialist made her want to help keep reading alive with her students and the community during the coronavirus pandemic.
Jill Buck, who has been the media specialist at West Rockingham Elementary School since 2012, and involved in education for 16 years, has built not one, but two Little Free Libraries since March. And she’s currently working on a third.
A nonprofit organization, Little Free Library is a worldwide system of pop-up styled libraries that allow readers to exchange books in all 50 states and in over 100 countries. Over 100,000 libraries are registered across the globe, and more than 36 million books are exchanged every year.
“I noticed in other towns like Southern Pines there were Little Free Libraries, and I thought the pandemic was the perfect opportunity to bring one to our community,” Buck explained.
“The first one I made, I wanted to put it at my school so that our students still had a way to get reading material even with schools closed,” she added. “That was such a success that I decided to put one in our neighborhood, too.”
An avid reader, especially of biographies, Buck went searching on social media to see what she could find to start her new project.
The Little Free Library that sits at West Rockingham is made out of a plastic realtors magazine stand, while the one by her house in Richmond Park was built using an old kitchen cabinet. Her husband, Tommy, helped with the construction.
Both are filled with a variety of chapter books and genres, and the one at her home has a broad selection of children, young adult and adult books. Buck also received a $200 grant from the Pizza Hut BOOK IT! Program, which she used to buy her students’ books.
Pictured above is the Little Free Library that now sits at West Rockingham Elementary School.
“When I posted about wanting to do one on Facebook, I got a lot of positive feedback from people,” Buck said. “There were a lot of people who wanted to donate books and I have about six boxes filled and ready to go.”
How the libraries normally work is readers will “take a book and share a book,” but during the COVID-19 outbreak, Buck has been making sure her guests are just taking one. Every book she has in stock has been properly “quarantined and disinfected” she explained.
After building her second Little Free Library, Buck filled out an application and paid a registration fee to make the one in Richmond Park “official.” It can be found on the organization’s website and was given a charter number.
Decorated with a beach theme to make it more appealing, the chartered library is covered in various sea life, including a shark, an octopus, a crab, a whale and a stingray.
“I know that a lot of my neighbors have been using our Little Free Library,” Buck said. “The short-term goal was to try and provide books while the libraries were closed and just trying to get reading material out.
“Now my long-term hope is that the neighborhood and community will use it often and benefit from it.”
Buck recently had a third library box donated and once she finishes it, she hopes to place it near local businesses in uptown Rockingham.
To find Buck’s Little Free Library, click here to view the official map and search for Rockingham locations.
