No late fees at this new Duncan library

If you build it and stock it with books, they will come. And read.

That’s the idea behind a new community feature at the Cowichan Sportsplex.

The Little Free Library, which looks something like a large hand-crafted bird house, is located right near the administration office and offers participants the chance to “take a book, return a book”.  

The outdoor facility has been supplied by the Duncan Daybreak Rotary Club.

“We are proud of our partnership with the Sportsplex and when we were seeking a location for the Little Library, they immediately came to mind,” said Rotarian Keith Grey when completing the project Aug. 27.

He saw the project in a club magazine and thought it offered a perfect fit for both the facility and its users.

“With this set-up, there won’t be library cards or late fines, no insistence that patrons whisper or stay quiet, and there certainly won’t be any issues with unreturned books,” said Sportsplex Executive Director Catherine Brandon. “This offers a wonderful opportunity for the community to come together and exercise not only their bodies but their minds at the Cowichan Sportsplex.”

The whole concept of the little box is take a book to read and leave an equivalent one in its place.

Rotarian Holger Heitland was also at the Sportsplex for the grand opening and urged people to choose books carefully.

“We don’t need the Guinness Book of Records from 1993,” he said. “Bring books people might want to read.”

Brandon said she envisions a number of different little libraries on site, maybe sorted by subject.