Magnolia has 'Little Free Library'

Magnolia area residents will now have access to 24-hour library materials in their hometown, thanks to the Southwest Area Multicounty Multitype Interlibrary Exchange (SAMMIE).
A Little Free Library has been set up in front of the post office in Magnolia to allow people to take books and return them when done.
The small outside structure has books that are donated by users under the motto, “Take a book, return a book,” which is what the little libraries provide: free reading materials.
SAMMIE, an organization devoted to the promotion of libraries and reading, decided to devote funds to be used to establish a Little Free Library in a town or area that did not have a local library.
Meredith Vaselaar, librarian at the Adrian Branch Library, is on the SAMMIE council and volunteered to look for a possible site for a Little Free Library in the Plum Creek System.
“I wanted a place that was easily accessible to the public, but would be secure,” Vaselaar said. “I also wanted a place in which the local residents were willing to work with SAMMIE to ensure its success.”
After checking with a few towns in the area, Vaselaar decided to see if the town of Magnolia was interested in having a Little Free Library.
She learned that Magnolia had its own free book donation library housed inside the post office and that it was already popular with the residents of Magnolia.
The only downside was that they could be accessed only during the few open hours daily at the post office.
Part of the Little Free Library movement is that books are available 24 hours a day, seven days a week, so the Magnolia City Council recognized the opportunity to increase the availability of reading resources to its citizens.
The City Council approved the installation of a Little Free Library, and on Oct. 29 the donated structure (built by Vaselaar’s husband, Eric) was placed at the Post Office.
If the enterprise is successful, SAMMIE will provide full funding for a more durable, permanent Little Free Library in Magnolia.
There are more than 32,000 Little Free Library structures, many of them handmade, in all 50 states, plus 70 countries.
Vaselaar said the SAMMIE organization is unfamiliar to most people, but she said it has contributed a great deal to library services in the region, since it was established by the legislature in 1979.
The 197 Minnesota libraries that belong to SAMMIE are made up of public libraries, school library/media centers, academic libraries and special libraries. The region covers the 18 counties of southwest Minnesota.
More information is available at www.sammie.org.