September is the Rotary Literacy month. Our club installed designed, built and installed four Little Free Libraries (LFL) in various locations our community of Arden Hills and Shoreview, hence providing free book access seven days a week, 24 hours a day to all.
The LFLs will initially be filled by us with books for children ages 3 to 13. Since this is a share a book and leave a book, it should sustain itself. However, we will replenish as required. 
<< Little Library is a “take a book, leave a book” is an informal community book sharing network. >>
The LFLs will initially be filled by us with books for children ages 3 to 13. Since this is a share a book and leave a book, it should sustain itself. However, we will replenish as required.
The mission of LFL is to inspire readers and expand book access for all. Through programs such as Read in Color and Impact Library Program, LFLs offer a platform to bring diverse books to young readers and meeting place for neighbors to connect.
Our club received over 500 books at no cost from https://thefreebookbuggie.org/about-us/ , a non-profit started by two ladies in the Twin Cities who are on a mission to ignite a passion for reading. In addition, Anoop purchased selected diverse books at a bookseller in Madison, Wisconsin https://www.books4school.com/ and donated for the LFLs. Our librarian at Shoreview library Carol Jackson, provided a list of books that will appeal to young readers. We invite you to buy more books from this list. Please contact Anoop for the list.
Picture shows Paul and Bill building the LFL at Paul’s workshop.
Rotarians Paul Bartyzal and Bill Klumpp designed and built the four LFLs spending many hours over the summer of 2021. Rotarian Colleen Lavin procured the paint that matched the Rotary colors, the decals and labels to adorn the LFLs. Rtn Joe Ziskovsky did a trial run of disassembly and reassembly of the LFL and offered pointers for improving before the final construction of all LFLs.
Picture shows the installation crew: Mark Stange, Ranjit & Nikhil Kulangaroth, Anoop Mathur, and Paul Bartyzal at the Lake Johanna fire station on Victoria street. Mike Spellman and Frank Mabley catching up on their reading.
Installation crew of second LFL near Sitzer Park, Shoreview: Ken Hola, Paul Bartyzal, Coleen Lavin, Mike Spellman, John Suzukida, Anoop Mathur, Peggy Strom.
Other Rotarians who helped paint the LFLs and not in the pictures included: Charlie Oltman, Kevan Keenan, Jerry Peterson, Sushma Kamran and Dennis Erno.
Two more installations near Freeway Park in Arden Hills and Mobile Home park on County J will be compete in September. Rotarian Anoop Mathur coordinated the efforts.