Cruz's LFL #155 Q & A
Visit, Read and GeoCache
Cruz Morales on Little Free Libraries
Hi! My name is Cruz, and I built this Little Library with my dad.
One question that often comes up when planning a Little Free Libraries is: how big should build?
Little Free Libraries are about personality and practicality—so make your library as big as your
comfortable with and that suits your community.
First, focus on a decent location. Place the Little Library under a tree to help protect it from snow
and rain. If you are putting it in your neighborhood, make sure you have easy access to it so you
can be a good steward.
Keep your community in mind. Think about placing one (or a second) near the neighborhood
pool or park. You can place it on public land; the process is simple but varies by city. Look on
the Little Free Library website for resources to help you with questions about zoning, building
codes and other issues about location. (http://www.littlefreelibrary.org)
Feel free to add something you’re familiar with and which is accessible to the public—anything
from a genre specific shelf, a “favorite reads” shelf, or a hidden geocache adjacent to your library.
Don’t get held up in the planning stages. You’ll be happier once your Little Library is in the
ground and planted. When it’s there, it’ll gain a following. As a steward, you can get a feel for
your readers and adjust to what they might like or appreciate.
If there are a lot of eager kids who love reading, consider making a large children’s section with
a wide door. You can do the same for an adult section if there is a strong adult following.
If you have the spare lumber, make a bench next to your Little Library for people to enjoy on a
lazy afternoon or as a rest stop on their daily walk. You can even make a second box for
periodicals, common giveaways, magazines, locally published work, poetry, local pamphlets for
plays, comedy clubs, or news. The “poetry pipe” on our Little Library has been an increasingly
popular feature for young and older poets alike.
The possibilities are endless and each new Little Library brings excitement and curiosity.
Join the conversation on the Little Free Library Facebook group, a place where pictures and
ideas are shared about Little Libraries from around the world. Look at the page for a spark of
inspiration or a fun idea to incorporate into your Little Library.
Thanks for reading! I’ll use this blog to talk about the additions I’ve made to my library as well
as the other library projects I’ve been apart of. These include poetry, geocaching, and libraries
I’ve made with my friends.
-Cruz Morales
Last of all, a bit about me:
Cruz Morales attended Madison Edgewood High School, and will attend Carleton College as a
part of the Class of 2017. He is a poet and co-editor of the Postscript Journal, an Honorary
Supervisor of Dane County, a Little Free Library steward, an excited geocacher. He innovated
his Little Library with a “Poetry in the Pipe” section that spreads his own poetry and promotes
local events. He is a graduate of the Iowa Young Writers’ Studio and he looks forward to a
career as an academic in the field of Astrogeology (the study of planets outside of the solar
system), while becoming a practicing poet.
I loved the name you gave me. Here are some others I thought of:
Blog from the Steward of Geocache Little Free Library
Student and Steward Blogger from Madison, Wi
High School Steward Blogs from Madison, Wi
Shorter BIO Paragraph: Cruz Morales attended Madison Edgewood High School, and will
attend Carleton College as a part of the Class of 2017. He is a poet and co-editor of the Postscript
Journal, an Honorary Supervisor of Dane County, a Little Free Library steward, and an excited
geocacher.
It will take a while but we’ll want a fairly consistent style of certain things. When you use