Detroit Little Libraries & the art of reading @ Knight Arts blog
If you build, they will read.
That seems to be the underlying conceit of the Little Free Library movement, founded in 2009 in Hudson, Wis., by a man named Todd Bol. Since his first Little Library, the idea of distributing free books on a take-one, leave-one basis out of eye-catching, publicly mounted boxes has become a bona fide international craze, sparking localized efforts to create a network of 30,000 Little Libraries in communities all around the world.
For Kim Kozlowski, the idea of Little Libraries in Detroit took hold in 2014, and since then, she has vowed to make the city the Little Library capital of the world. In a place where an estimated 47 percent of adults are functionally illiterate, the need for community-based support of reading is undeniable. Starting with a donation of 20 library boxes from Bol in November of 2014, Kozlowski has been a tireless advocate for the construction, dissemination and stewardship of Little Libraries all across the city.