Little Free Library opens in Kalispell neighborhood
<p>Rusty Halaas poses next to his Little Free Library outside his home in Kalispell.</p>
The concept is simple: Take a book, leave a book, and no renewals, fines or Dewey Decimal System searches.
The Little Free Library, a new concept for the Flathead Valley, is simply a row of books inside a small shelter. Kalispell now has its own Little Free Library — No. 2754 — located at 120 Garland St.
Longtime Kalispell resident Rusty Halaas built the tiny book nook, modeling it after the Norwegian Stabbur-style cabin he vacations at on Ashley Lake. The library has shingles, red trim and rosemaling (a type of Norwegian decorative folk-art painting) embellishments around the door. Woodcarving is just one of his hobbies.
“It’s a little house with a glass door so that you can see the books,” Halaas said. “The siding and shingles are the same as we have on our house.”
Halaas, 86, is a retired Lutheran pastor.
“I thought it would be great for the community and good for our neighborhood,” Halaas said. “I think it’s fun.”
While Halaas initially stocked the library, the idea is that its patrons will restock it regularly in a continual book exchange.
“There are a variety of books from Westerns, to history, to poetry and books for children,” he said.
Some of those books came from his daughter, Beth Halaas, whose vacation cabin is next door to her parents.
“There are a mix of children’s books from my children, books they’ve outgrown,” she said.
Although her home is now in California, she keeps close ties to her hometown of Kalispell and Ashley Lake.
“I’ve been coming here [Ashley Lake] my whole life,” Beth Halaas said.
She discovered the Little Free Library concept from reading newspaper articles and listening to the radio, and knew right away it was the perfect project for her dad.
“He is very creative and loves to do things with his hands, he’s built a lot of doll houses for me over the years,” she said. “He is all about the community.”
Rusty Halaas said he hopes this Little Free Library gets more people reading and visiting with their neighbors. He hopes people will be inspired to build more Free Little Libraries.
The Little Free Library is an international movement, with tiny libraries sprouting up in parks, schools, yards, porches and stores, surpassing the 2,509 libraries funded by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie.
Todd Bol of Hudson, Wis. and Rick Brooks of Madison, Wis. started the movement in 2009. Bol dedicated the first library in the memory of his mother.
“She was a teacher who loved books, loved kids, the kind of mom that was everybody’s mom,” Bol said in a telephone interview with the Inter Lake.
People were attracted to the concept of the little library.
“People were ignited,” Bol said. “I was so enthralled by the idea that people got so excited about it.”
Bol described it as the “sweet slice of humanity” coming out of people who interacted at the Little Free Libraries.
“The Little Free Library is like having a front-yard porch that extends to the sidewalk,” Bol said. “It has a way of opening up a neighborhood.”
A grand opening of Kalispell’s first Little Free Library is planned for 7 p.m. today at 120 Garland St., off Three Mile Drive a couple of blocks west of Kalispell Middle School.
For more information call Rusty Halaas at 756-3162 or visit www.littlefreelibrary.org.
Reporter Hilary Matheson may be reached at 758-4431 or by email at hmatheson@dailyinterlake.com.