SIS installs Little Libraries

You may have seen a little bird-house box at the Shack or traveling around the U.S. mainland, but Saipan International School is the newest location to host a “Little Free Library: Take a Book, Leave a Book” for its community.

The first Little Free Library was built in 2009 by the Todd Bol in Wisconsin, as a tribute to his late mother, a former teacher and book lover. Bol put a wooden container on his lawn and filled it with books. The idea caught and soon these small book houses started sprouting up across the Midwest.

The little library is basically a community book exchange. Community members are free to take a book that looks interesting to them and, sometime in the future, bring it back or donate a totally different one. SIS has two side-by-side libraries and according to Jeremy Anderberg, a professional book reviewer, this has tremendous benefits to a community, including:

Promoting literacy: According to the National Center for Education Statistics, 21% of U.S. adults suffer from low English literacy skills, making it difficult for them to function in the workplace. SIS has a large portion of English language learners, whose first language is not English. The book houses provide an avenue for our student and parent population to gain greater access to reading material. But SIS doesn’t limit the library to English books only. “Increasing mother-tongue fluency is shown to benefit overall literacy rates,” said Dr. Ron Snyder, SIS headmaster. “And we encourage all of our stakeholders to develop literacy skills, regardless of language.”

Promoting neighborliness: With the advent of social media, permeating our lives and increasing our isolation, developing a sense of community is a greater challenge than ever before. By installing a little free library, SIS hopes to create the neighborhood that it wants its children to grow up in, a neighborhood not only of academics and literacy development, but one of friendliness, well-being and community spirit.

Expanding literary horizons: It is easy to get stuck in a genre, only reading the types of books that you have read before. But the workplace is increasingly looking for well-rounded individuals, people who can adjust to the ever-increasing rate of change in our world. A little library expands horizons exponentially. The SIS Little Library has books from Tom Clancy, fantasy and SciFi novels, political, and self-help books. They might not be interesting in the end, but the simple act of browsing through a book opens up new possibilities.

Meeting new people: The SIS Little Library is open at all times but the school hopes that while waiting for an appointment, or a parent teacher conference, parents might gather around the Little Library and strike up a conversation. The Little Library and the books contained within provide an excuse for small-talk and, perhaps, the start of a new friendship.

Cultivating a spirit of generosity: One of SIS’ virtues is compassion, which includes performing service for others. SIS believes that a spirit of generosity will help develop this sense of service beyond self and contributing to the Little Library will add to that sense of giving back to the community. The donations might be small and no longer needed at the home but the simple act of giving, will help develop the sense of generosity that SIS hopes to see.

The materials needed for a Little Library are readily available on Saipan. SIS would like to encourage all schools to install their own Little Libraries and reap all of the benefits they bring. (PR)