Coming Soon to a Park, Pool & Bike Path Near You

Meet one of our Little Free Libraries.

You're going to see more of them soon at parks, pools and bike paths around Mentor and Mentor-on-the-Lake.

The idea behind the Little Free Library is simple but brilliant.

We can call it "brilliant" without sounding arrogant because it wasn't our idea. The idea came from Todd Bol -- a Wisconsin man who wanted to honor his mother, a school teacher and avid reader. It has since spread to all 50 states and 40 countries.

LFLs work like community book exchanges. When you see one of these around the community, you can take a book from it, read it, keep it if you want and bring it back if you don't.

If you want, you can donate a book simply by leaving it inside one of our LFLs.

Couldn't be easier. You don't even need a library card. (But you really should have a library card so you have access to all the other cool stuff we offer.)

The books we use to stock the LFLs aren't part of the library's collection either. Most of them are donated.

If you are a community member, organization or business and would like to steward one of the libraries, we welcome your participation. To be clear, stewards wouldn't have to donate money or books. They would have to just give a little of their time to make sure the LFLs stay stocked.

We have plenty of books for restocking purposes available at our Read House. Stewards would just have to pick up books from the Read House and take them to their LFLs.

And where are these Little Free Libraries going to be, you may ask.

All over! We want to make sure that they are where you are. That way they're readily accessible.

So here's a list of places where you'll see LFLs very soon:

Mentor-on-the-Lake locations

• Overlook Beach Park (corner of Reynolds and Salida roads)
• Adult soccer fields at MOL City Hall (Andrews Road)
• Mentor Beach Park (Andrews Road)

Mentor locations

• Mentor Dog Park (Hopkins Road)
• Mentor Lagoons
• Wildwood Cultural Center & Park (Little Mountain Road)
• Morton Community Park pool (Rosemary Lane off Corduroy Road, Headlands)
• Eleanor B. Garfield Park pool (Mentor Avenue)
• Eleanor B. Garfield Park playground
• Civic Center Park pool (Hopkins Road)
• Civic Center Park amphitheater
• Edward R. Walsh Park (Bellflower Road)
• Commemorative Rose Garden (corner of Mentor Avenue & Hart Street)

(Special thanks go to the cities of Mentor and Mentor-on-the-Lake for all their cooperation.)

If you are interested in stewarding one of these locations, please call Sue Fram for more information at 255-8811 ext. 233.

So those are our Little Free Libraries. They're coming to your neighborhood soon. We hope you love them as much as we do.

They're just one more way we're trying to serve you.