The spirit of giving is alive and well at the Getty Street Lending Library, a street-side book exchange where books are free to give or take.
The library is a made- with-love project by local resident Colleen Hoffman, who decided to create the library as a way to utilize the extra books donated to the Uvalde Classical Academy library.
Hoffman volunteers at the UCA library. Her daughter Gracee Olson is an art teacher at UCA and the librarian, and her grandchildren Jolee and Mylee Olson attend school there.
She said the UCA library often receives book donations, and sometimes they already have multiple copies or the content is adult-themed – “For example, a Harlequin romance novel” – and not appropriate for the school.
In her travels to Seattle to visit one of her daughters, Hoffman said she’d noticed free little libraries where people had taken a book or left a book, and she wanted to bring the idea to Uvalde.
The Free Little Library movement started in 2009, and is a nonprofit organization that promotes neighborhood book exchanges. Per their website, there are more than 100,000 little libraries worldwide.
“I had wanted to make one for several years,” Hoffman said, adding that she had originally thought about constructing one at Uvalde Memorial Park.
She opted for placing it near UCA instead, out of ease and proximity to the school. With permission from UCA head of school Larri Wright, she decided to start construction.
The little library was made with the help of the Herby Ham Activity Center wood shop volunteer Les Brieden.
Hoffman built the library out of an old filing cabinet drawer she had in her garage. She was also able to get a “scratch and dent” wood post for free from the local TJ Moore ACE hardware store, and she had help from her husband in construction.
“It was basically free to build,” she said, adding the flower pot housing the library was also a donation.
Looking to the future, Hoffman is hoping to provide seating nearby for passersby to sit and enjoy a book.
She said the book exchange is not entered on the Free Little Library map as registration is $40. Hoffman said she opted instead to keep her library as the “Getty Street Lending Library.”