Todd Bol’s mother was a schoolteacher who loved to read, and who encouraged him when he struggled in school. After she died, he took the wood from his old garage door and built a small box shaped like a one-room schoolhouse, filled it with books, and put it on a post in his front yard in Hudson, Wisconsin. That was 2009.
The idea was simple enough to fit on the front of the box: take a book, share a book. Neighbors started stopping. Then they started building their own.
Little Free Library history: passing Carnegie
Bol partnered with Rick Brooks, and the two set themselves a target inspired by Andrew Carnegie, who funded 2,509 public libraries. They passed that number in August 2012, ahead of their own 2013 goal, and Little Free Library became a nonprofit the same year.
As of April 2026, the organization counts more than 200,000 registered Little Free Libraries in 128 countries, in all 50 states and on all seven continents, and estimates that more than 500 million books have been shared through them since 2009. The first National Little Free Library Day was celebrated on May 17, 2026.
“I really believe in a Little Free Library on every block and a book in every hand,” Bol said.
People hug them
Bol died in October 2018 at 62. He once told NPR what surprised him most about the boxes. “One of the things that always just amazes me is how many people hug them.”
The organization’s own surveys back up the neighborly effect. It reports that 72 percent of volunteer stewards say they have met more neighbors because of their library, and 98 percent of people say their neighborhood feels friendlier because of one.
“He was being a champion for communities,” author Miranda Paul told NPR after his death, “new friendships, new ideas, new projects, springing to life as a result of his idea.”
They are easy to find across Los Angeles, Long Beach and Orange County, on parkways and outside apartment buildings. Each one started the way the first did: someone built a box, filled it and waited to see who would come.
Sources
- Little Free Library, Our History
- Little Free Library, First National Little Free Library Day press release (April 28, 2026)
- NPR, Little Free Library creator Todd Bol dies (Oct. 2018)
- Little Free Library, About
