Woodland’s Little Free Library Reading can change lives. Books can create community. This is the main reason senior Emma Swanson decided to create a little free library for the Woodland community for her senior project.

“I love to read and I always see on social media platforms communities who have these little free libraries. You give a book and take a book,” said Swanson. “My mom had inspired me to choose this as my senior project and she had been sending me videos about it. She thought that it would be nice to do, and that a lot of people have that connection to reading,”

With some meticulous craftsmanship, Swanson transformed a vintage newspaper box into a beautiful little nook for the books to be stored.

“Mr. Geary reached out to me saying that he had an old newspaper box, and so I took that home, and I am going to paint it and fix it up. It is pretty cool because it is a legit newspaper box and the way it opens is that it has this spring in it, which I want to end up doing something with. I want to try my best to preserve the original usage of the box,” stated Swanson.

One of the best things about a library is that a person can bring books back and forth at their own leisure. It also can open up an opportunity to explore books a person never thought that they would be interested in.

“I know a lot of people who love to read. When you read a book, you do not always reread it, and then it just sits there. This is a great way to trade books with people, and read the books that you want to read without spending any money,” Swanson noted. She herself has tried many different books, and has found her own favorite genre.

Swanson wants to bring this to other people. “This library can also expose you to different types and genres of books. It allows the community to see what kind of books everyone else is reading, and you can talk with other people who use the little free library to get recommendations of new genres. The best thing about this is that if you do not like the book you are reading, you can just return it,”

Swanson has high hopes for the library, and has worked hard to try and bring the reading community here at Woodland together.

“I am hoping that this library brings people that are really into reading together, in a way of sharing. I know for me that I have tons of books that I want to read, but it is not really feasible for me to just go out and buy the fifty books on my reading list, so this is a way for a person who is looking for a book to just look in the book box and just take what they want from it.”

The library can be found right in front of the cafeteria. People open a book to open a conversation with the reading community.