If everything goes according to plan for Savannah Steet \u201923, a new library will be up and running on Furman\u2019s campus in February 2023.<\/p>\n
It shouldn\u2019t be too hard to tell the new library apart from the James B. Duke Library<\/a>, though. It will be along the path by Furman Lake near the Dining Hall patio, not in the center of campus. At about 3 square feet, it will be considerably smaller than the Duke Library, and it won\u2019t hold anything close to 360,000 volumes. But visitors walking by the new Little Free Library can take any book they want for as long as they wish \u2013 and Steet hopes they will return to add more books there for others to enjoy.<\/p>\n Although a Little Free Library<\/a> \u2013 a small pole-mounted wooden box with a slanted roof and a clear door \u2013 is usually found in a residential neighborhood or outside a small business like the Swamp Rabbit Caf\u00e9, a book-sharing box makes perfect sense for the Furman community, Steet said.<\/p>\n \u201cFurman at its best is a place of sharing ideas and exchanging things with the greater community,\u201d said the sustainability science major. \u201cThe campus is a community space as much as it is a student space. Furman should be really welcoming to visitors, and I want to contribute in some way to making that a campus value.\u201d<\/p>\n Sharing books can strengthen community connections, said Steet.<\/p>\n \u201cThe biggest difference lies in the exchange,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you go to the library, you get a book, then you give it back. You have experienced that book in a vacuum, as an isolated experience. But when you get a book from a Little Free Library, it\u2019s a book that someone in the campus community has specifically put in there wanting you to read it.\u201d<\/p>\n And once you\u2019ve read it, the cycle continues: \u201cIdeally, you do the same thing,\u201d said Steet. \u201cYou either leave a book that you\u2019ve read, or you give that book back. It\u2019s that exchange of ideas, the relationship between people through books, that makes it special.\u201d<\/p>\n After winning a grant from the Furman Humanities Center<\/a> and securing the help of Furman Facility Services for site selection and installation, Steet placed her order from the Little Free Library organization, which builds the libraries and sends them out to a global network of volunteers. The nonprofit uses sales proceeds to fund other libraries in underserved areas in 100 different countries.<\/p>\n Furman\u2019s Little Free Library will arrive unpainted, so the Humanities Center is hosting a design contest to decorate it (email savannah.steet@furman.edu<\/a> for more information).<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really looking forward to seeing what people on campus can come up with,\u201d Steet said.<\/p>\n